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UNIVERSITY  ')-  C-^JFOUmM 
LOS  ANGELJSa 


SELECTED   FROM   THE   AVRITINGS 


HORA(  K    MA>sN. 


I  hold  Education  to  be  an  organic  necessity  of  a  human  hcinp. 

IIOKACK  ]Mann. 


BOSTON: 
H.    B.    FTLLKli    AND    COMPANY. 

(Successors  to  Walker.  FrixER  &  Co.) 
245  WASHINGTON  STREET. 


Kntcred,  acoonling  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  thp  j-ear  1.SH7,  l>y 

MARY    MANN. 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  tlie  District  Court  of  the  Distriot  «f  Massachusetts. 


STEReOTVPfcO      AT     IHE 
BOSTON      STEREOTYPE      fOUN 
NO.    4    SPRING    LANE. 


'resswork  by  John  Wilson  and  Son. 


CONTEXTS 


A.. 

PAGE 

Abolitionism 145 

Absolut*  truth  immutable.  .  86  : 
Action  of  conscience.  .  .  63,  116  I 
Activities  of  matter—  Poly-  | 

theism 230 

Actirities  of  nature 62 

Adaptation  of  motives.  .  .  .  221 
Add  to  knowled^  virtue.  .  221 
Advantage  of  knowledge.    .     61 

A  free  country 120  , 

Agitation 123  j 

All  men  created  equal.  . 
*'  All  must  be  clean,  or  none 

can  be  clean." 

"  A  man's  a  man  for  a'  that.'' 
American  slaves  in  Liberia. 
Ancient    and    modern    Sha- 

drach 130 

A  new  race 41 

Annexation  of  Texas.  ...  127 
Application  of  principles. .  .  113 
Arbitrary  governments.    .  .    130 

Assimilation 9 

Association  of  ideas 67 

Atheists 178 

A  torch  of  fire 122 


PAGB 

Benevolence 224 

Biography 105 


179  i 

125' 
136 


Cant 224 

Caste 135 

Causality 90 

Cause  and  effect 71 

Causes 98 

Causes  of  alienation  between 

science  and  religion.    ...  77 

Causes  of  necromancy.  &c.  •  30 

Change  of  measures 173 

Change  of  tactics 134 

Christ  teaching 192 

Civilization 57 

Civilization  and  Christianity.  87 

Classes  of  truths 61 

Classical  study  as  discipline.  106 

Colleges  and  the  people.    .   .  109 

Commerce  and  freedom.    .   .  167 

Compensation 112 

Compromise    measures    of 

ISoO 119,  123 

Concentration  of  thought.  .  228 


contp:is'ts. 


PAGE 

Congress  in  1849 145 

Connection  of   science    and 

relig-ion 186 

Conscience 90,  124 

Consequences    of    physical 

evils 83 

Cure  of  superstition 234 


Danger  of  the  republic.    .  .  180 

Deliverance 134 

Delights  of  knowledge.    .  .  12 

Difficulties  of  an  educator.  .  227 
Diffusion  and  extension  of 

knowledge 15 

Discussion  and  agitation. .  .  122 

Disinterested  love 188 

Disunion 153 

Do  as  you  would  be  done  by.  127 
Does  intellectual  power  make 

a  man  virtuous  .' 44 

Duties  of  republics.    .  .  168,  170 

Duty 90 

Duty  a  happiness 49 

Duty  of  the  teacher 113 


Education.  .  .  .  7,  8,  10,  11, 14-16 
Education  an  organic  neces- 
sity of  man 235 

Education  in  a  republic.    .  .  42 

Efl'ects  of  imperfect  training.  21 

Error  contagious 69 

Errors  of  education 189 

Every  individual's  right  to 

education 31 

Every  man  has  his  own  God.  192 

Evils  of  bad  teaching.    ...  112 

Excuses  of  temptation.     .  .  116 

Extension  of  slavery.    ...  160 


I  PAGE 

I  False  knowledge 104 

;  Fanaticism 108 

I  Federal  constitution 126 

Fictitious  literature 101 

Follow  Nature 113 

Freedom  in  the  territories.  .  154 

Freedom  or  subjection  ?    .  .  182 

Free-soilism  in  1850 146 

Free  speech 120 

Free  thinking 13 

Free   thought   in    Galileo's 

time 149 


Geology 199,230 

Gibbon  and  Shakspeare.    .  .  224 
God    said,    "  Let   there    be 

liglit." 37 

God's  laws 81 

God's  lessons  in  Nature.  .  .  107 

Golden  rule  perverted.  .  .  .  128 

Good  behavior 28 

Good  opinion  of  others  influ- 
ential for  good 152 

Good  teaching 226 

Grace 82 

Greatness     not     dependent 

upon  the  sphere  of  action.  46 

Greatness  of  heart 48 

Growth 225 

Growth  of  the  mind 226 

Guilt  transforms 76 


H. 

Habit 115 

Harmony  of  Nature 78 

Haste  in  teaching 222 

Have  heathens  souls  ?    .  .  .  115 

Heaven  not  a  place 193 

History 104 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Honesty  is  the  best  policy."  2i7 
Human  improvability.  ...  22 
Human  nature  a  problem.  .     53 


I. 

Ideality 195 

Ideality  a  prophecy 228 

Ignorance 103 

Ignorance  and  miracles.    .  .  95 

Ignorance  breeds  error.    .   .  143 

Immortality 194,  195 

Importance  of  early  impres- 
sions   20 

Importance  of  early  influence.  10 

Importance  of  health.    ...  55 

Individuality 90 

Ineffective  teaching 225 

Influence  of  a  good  teacher  .  34 
Influences  of  city  and  coun- 
try   72 

Influence  of  the  majority  in 

a  republic 184 

Insight 80 

Intellect CO 

Is  matter  inert  ? 228 

Is  Providence  inscrutable  ?  .  234 
It  is  easier  to  die  for  others 

than  to  live  for  others.  .  .  200 


Key  to  the  universe 82 

Kingdom  of  God 99 

Knowledge    but    an  instru- 
ment   15 

"  Knowledge  is  power."  .   .  232 


Language 54 

Law  of  liberty 131 

Law  of  responsibUity.  ...     95 


PAGE 

Laws  of  mmd 64 

Laws  of  nature 106 

Laws  of  the  soul 62 

Leading  men  responsible  to 

the  community 154 

Learn  of  the  birds 55 

Liberty  and  labor 1.32 

Liberty  of  thought.     .  .  .17,130 

Libraries  in  common  schoolff.  17 

Literary  expression 116 

Literature 105 

Live  to  the  truth 190 

Look  inward 97 

Love 91 

Love     of     improvement    a 

prophecy 199 

Love  of  truth  an  attribute 

of  the  intellect 189 

Mahomet 224 

Man  is  fearfully  and  wonder- 
fully made 56 

Man  progressive 12 

Massachusetts     consent    to 

slavery  ! IGO 

Material  importance  of  edu- 
cation   191 

Mental  exercise  strengthens, 

as  well  as  physical.     .   .  .  223 

Mental  philosophy 227 

Miracles 78 

Moral  earthquakes 166 

Moral  growth 58 

Moral  influence  of  intellect- 
ual cultivation 108 

More  sugar-plums.  .....  167 

Mr.  Clay's  compromises.  .  .  157 
Mr.     Webster     appeals     to 

higher  authority 101 

Multitude  of  truths 01 


CONTENTS. 


IV. 

PAGE 

National  crimes 1S4 

Native  love  of  liberty.  .  .  .  135 

Natural  knowledge 74 

Natural  language 74 

Natural  philosophy.  .  .  103,  107 
Natural   philosophy   versus 

literature  and  history.    .  .  102 

Nature's  advertisements.  .   .  75 

Nature's  path 222 

Nature  would  work  for  man.  233 

New  Mexico 156 

No  education  for  the  slave. .  141 
No  such  thing-  as  Accident  in 

Nature 97 

No  truth  useless 185 


Objects  of  knowledge.  .  .  .   236 
Origin  of  the  words  urbane, 
polite,  civil 32 


Parental  authority 19 

Parental  conscience 187 

Parental  influence 53 

Parental  love 185 

Party  dictation 167 

Pennsylvania's  wrongs.    .  •  164 

Philosophy  of  history.  ...  105 

Philosophy  of  insanity.  ...  68 

Philosophy  of  teaching.   .   .  222 

Physical  deterioration. ...  21 

Pleasures  of  knowledge.  .  .  51 

Political  economy 191 

Poverty 100 

Poverty  of  spirit 118 

Power  of  eloquence 68 

Power  over  evil  men 46 

Powers  of  the  mind 62 

Preservation  of  our  liberties.  132 


PAGE 

Priestcraft Ill 

Protection  to  labor 134 

Progress 240 

Progress  of  science 23 

Proportion 89 

Public  opinion  in  1850.  ...  124 

Punishment  self-inflicted.     .  75 

Puritan  ideas  of  education. .  24 

Purity  of  childhood 45 

Read  always 47 

Reason  in  teaching 223 

Reflection  — perception.    .  .  72 

Relations  of  things 114 

Religion  of  Nature.    ...  80,  92 

Religious  liberty 131 

Remedy  for  poverty 100 

Remorse 100 

Responsibilities 117 

Retribution 122 

Ripeness  of  men 81 

Rich  and  poor 225 

School-houses 27 

Schools 18 

Schools  the  counterpart  of 

freedom 175 

Scriptures  symbolical.  ...  88 

Self-confidence  of  ignorance.  Ill 

Self-government 171 

Self-reliance 11 

Shall  we  go  on .'' 8 

Skilled  labor 52 

Skill  in  educating 10 

Slave  marts 136 

Slavery  a  state  of  war,  ...  125 
Slavery  extension.  .  .  .    138,  163 

Slavery  in  the  constitution. .  144 

Slavery  or  freedom 164 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Slavery  sanctioned    by  the 

constitution  ? 151 

Slavery  sanctioned    by  the 

Levitical  law 149 

Slavery  the  "  sum  of  all  vil- 

lanies." 1G2 

Slaves  better  off  here  than 

in  Africa 139 

Slave-soilism 1-1? 

Source  of  faith  in  the  world's 

progress 10 

Source  of  spiritual  errors.  .  05 
Source  of  the  wealth  of  Mas- 
sachusetts   30 

Spirit  of  the  age 15G 

Spiritual  conditions 04 

Spiritual  truth 100 

Spiritual  wrecks SO 

Strength  of  a  republic.  .   .   .  170 

Study  of  astronomy 41 

Study  of  languages GO 

Study  of  science 59,  00 

Summary  trial  of  a  slave.  .   .  125 

Superstition  natural 71 

Supremacy  of  law 88,  90 

Symmetry  in  Nature 93 


T. 

Take  care  of  circumstances.  10 

Teachings  of  history.    ...  09 

»*  Teach  out  of  a  mine."  .   .   .  220 

Temperament 73 

Temperance 201,  210 

Temptation 90 

The  child  a  small  man.  .   .   .  223 
The  child  is   fatlier  of  the 

man 39 

The  "  coal  bags  "  of  the  as- 
tronomers   237 

The  door  to  the  temple.    .  .  48 


PAGE 

The  educated  and  the  unedu- 
cated man 43 

The  fact  of  slavery  and  the 

law  of  slavery 150 

The  groat  future 14 

The  infinite  and  the  finite,    .  52 
The  kingdoms  of  Christ  and 

of  Satan 192 

The  law  of  cause  and  effect. .  70 

The  limitations  of  education.  43 

The  Moloch  of  slavery.    .  .  120 

The  moral  faculties  supreme.  57 
The  most  important  things 

the  most  common 50 

The  remedy  for  evil 58 

The  soul  one 188 

The  sovereign  people.    .  .  .  176 

The  spelling-book 23 

The  still  small  voice 91 

The  true  great  men 80 

Tlie  universe  full  of  the  ob- 
jects of  knowledge 236 

The  value  of  knowledge.  .   .  51 

The  voting  day 172 

Think  — act 199 

Treat  with  respect  the  rea- 
soning powers 23 

Trial  by  jury 125,102 

Truth,  and  a  soul  to  see  it.  .  181 

Truth  and  error 129 

Truth  seeks  light 123 


XJ. 

Union 134 

Union  of  heart  and  intellect.  192 
Union    of    intellectual    and 

moral  life 89 

Universal  education 45 

Uses  of  knowledge 87 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Value  of  knowledge  to  ev- 
ery human  being 142 

Value  of  time 66 

Values 221 

Vice  in  colleges 185 

Virtue  a  growth 19 


TV. 

PAGE 

Wealth  of  nations 186 

What  is  education? 44 

What  is  God  to  man  ?     .  .  .  239 
What  sanctifies  civilization  ?  200 
Why  is  education  in  disre- 
pute?       113 

Wilmot  proviso 158 

Without  God  in  the  world.  .  49 

Writing  of  composition.  .  .  226 


THOUGHTS 


EDUCATION. 

IF  ever  there  was  a  cause,  if  ever  there  can  be  a 
cause,  worthy  to  be  upheld  by  all  of  toil  or 
sacrifice  that  the  human  heart  can  endure,  it  is  the 
cause  of  Education.  It  has  intrinsic  and  indestruc- 
tible merits.  It  holds  the  welfare  of  mankind  in 
its  embrace,  as  the  protecting  arms  of  a  mother 
hold  her  infant  to  her  bosom.  The  very  ignorance 
and  selfishness  which  obstruct  its  path  -^re  the 
strongest  arguments  for  its  promotion,  for  it  fur- 
nishes the  only  adequate  means  for  their  removal. 
It  is  worthy,  therefore,  to  be  urged  forward  over 
the  dead  obstacles  of  listlessness  and  apathy,  and 
against  the  living  hostility  of  those  sordid  men  who 
oppose  its  advancement  for  no  higher  reason  than 
that  of  the  silversmiths  who  trafficked  in  the 
shrines  of  the  goddess  Diana,  and  who  would  have 
quenched  the  holy  light  of  Christianity  for  all  man- 
kind rather  than  forego  their  profits  upon  idol 
worship. 

(7) 


THOUGHTS. 
SHALL    WE   GO   ONI 


I 


offer  a  single  reason  for  arresting  its  progress 


not  be  equally  available  for  reducing  its  present 
amount.  .  .  .  The  useful  and  elegant  arts,  that 
minister  to  the  comfort  of  man,  and  gladden  his 
eye  with  beauty ;  poetry  and  eloquence,  that  ravish 
the  soul ;  philosophy,  that  comprehends  the  work- 
manship of  the  heavens,  and  reads  in  the  present 
condition  of  the  earth,  as  in  the  leaves  of  a  book, 
the  records  of  myriads  of  ages  gone  by  ;  language, 
by  which  we  are  taught  by  all  the  generations  that 
are  past,  and  by  which  we  may  teach  all  the  gen- 
erations that  are  to  come,  —  all  these  would  be 
sunk  in  oblivion,  and  all  the  knowledge  possessed 
by  the  descendants  of  Bacon,  and  Xewton,  and 
Franklin  would  be  to  chatter  and  mow,  to  burrow 
in  a  hole,  and  crack  nuts  with  the  teeth.  Such  is 
the  catastrophe  to  which  we  should  come,  could 
those  prevail  who  would  make  the  present  horizon 
of  human  knowledge  stationary. 

PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

PHYSICAL  education  is  not  only  of  great  im- 
portance on  its  own  account,  but  in  a  certain 


THOUGHTS.  9 

sense  it  seems  to  be  invested  with  the  additional 
importance  of  both  intellectual  and  moral ;  be- 
cause, although  we  have  frequent  proofs  that  there 
may  be  a  human  body  without  a  soul,  yet,  under 
our  present  earthly  conditions  of  existence,  there 
cannot  be  a  human  soul  without  a  body.  The 
statue  must  lie  prostrate  without  a  pedestal ;  and 
in  this  sense  the  pedestal  is  as  important  as  the 
statue. 

ASSIMILATION. 

HOW  can  a  work,  at  once  so  vast  and  delicate 
as  a  symmetrical  development  of  the  human 
faculties,  be  conducted,  without  the  deepest  science 
in  the  preparation  of  means,  and  exquisite  skill  in 
applying  them?  The  infant  mind  grows,  not  by 
accretion,  but  through  organization.  Intelligence, 
and  wisdom,  and  virtue,  cannot  be  poured  out  of 
one  mind  into  another,  as  water  from  a  vessel. 
The  increment  comes  by  assimilation,  not  trans- 
fusion. Ideas,  knowledge,  may  be  brought  within 
reach  of  the  mind,  but  if  they  are  not  digested, 
and  prepared  by  a  process  of  the  spirit  itself 
upon  them,  they  give  no  more  vigor  and  power 
to  the  mind  than  sacks  of  grain  nourish  the  jaded 
beast  when  they  are  fastened  to  his  back. 


10  THOUGHTS. 

IMPORTANCE  OF  EARLY  INFLUENCE. 

THOSE  who  exert  the  first  influence  upon  the 
mind,  have  the  greatest  power.  They  have 
power,  not  only  to  regulate  the  action  of  given 
faculties,  but  they  can  enlarge  or  belittle  the 
fticulties  themselves.  Hence,  favoring  or  adverse 
circumstances  in  the  early  culture  of  mind,  though 
imperceptible  at  the  time,  will  at  last  w^ork  out 
broadly  into  beauty  or  deformity. 

SKILL   IN  EDUCATING. 

ONE  of  the  great  masters  of  painting  used  to 
prepare  and  mix  his  own  colors,  lest  some 
crudeness  in  the  material  should  baffle  his  skill, 
and  dim  the  lustre  or  cloud  the  majesty  of  his 
finished  work.  Do  we  act  upon  this  principle  in 
regard  to  education? 

SOURCE   OF  FAITH  IN  THE   WORLD'S  PROGRESS. 

I  BELIEVE  the  v/orld's  condition  moves  with 
a  strong  gravitation  towards  truth,  though  this 
belief  comes  more  from  my  faith  in  the  existence 
of  an  all-perfect  Deity  than  from  actual  observa- 
tion. 


THOUGHTS.  11 

NEGLECT  OF  EDUCATION: 

WHATEVER  deficiency  or  neglect  of  educa- 
tion there  may  be,  I  cannot  attribute  it  to 
any  general  want  of  parental  love.  That  fire  has 
not  gone  out,  for  Nature  is  its  vestal.  But  if,  in- 
stead of  twenty-one  years,  the  formation  of  the 
human  character  —  its  fate  for  weal  or  woe  —  were 
accomplished  in  twenty-one  days,  I  suppose  the 
merchant  would  leave  his  bargains,  the  farmer  the 
ingathering  of  his  harvests,  and  even  the  drunkard 
would  rise  from  the  middle  of  his  debauch,  and 
those  three  weeks  would  be  spent  without  much 
sleep,  and  with  many  prayers.  Yet  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  the  consequences  of  a  vicious  educa- 
tion given  to  a  child  are  precisely  the  same  at  the 
end  of  twenty-one  years  as  they  would  be  at  the 
expiration  of  twenty-one  days  after  birth,  were  that 
the  appointed  period. 

SELF-RELIANCE. 

BOTH  poetry  and  philosophy  are  prodigal  of 
eulogy  over  the  mind  which  ransoms  itself 
by  its  own  energy  from  a  captivity  to  custom,  which 
breaks  the  common  bounds  of  empire,  and  cuts  a 
Simplon  over  mountains  of  difficulty  for  its  own 
purposes,  whether  of  good  or  of  evil. 


12  THOUGHTS. 

DELIGHTS  OF  KNOWLEDGE. 

IF  there  is  anytliiDg  for  which  I  would  go  back  to 
childhood,  and  live  this  weary  life  over  again, 
it  is  for  the  burning,  exalting,  transporting  thrill 
and  ecstasy  with  which  the  young  faculties  hold 
their  earliest  communion  with  knowledge.  When 
the  panting  and  thirsting  soul  first  drinks  the  deli- 
cious w^aters  of  truth,  w^hen  the  moral  and  intel- 
lectual tastes  and  desires  first  seize  the  fragrant 
fruits  that  flourish  in  the  garden  of  knowledge,  then 
does  the  child  catch  a  glimpse  and  foretaste  of 
heaven.  He  regales  himself  upon  the  nectar  and 
ambrosia  of  the  gods.  Later  in  life  this  zest  is 
rarely  if  ever  felt  so  keenly  as  at  the  beginning. 
Such  ought  not  to  be  the  fact ;  but  our  bodies  are 
so  systematically  abused  by  transgressions  of  the 
laws  of  health  and  diet,  that  the  sympathizing  soul 
loses  the  keenness  of  its  daily  relish.  .  .  .  But 
these  lofty  and  enduring  satisfactions,  this  pleasure 

—  it  is  no  extravagance  to  say,  this  bliss  —  of  knowl- 
edge, both  for  parent  and  child,  is  withheld  cruelly, 

—  remorselessly  withheld  from  the  slave. 


MAN  PROGRESSIVE. 


M 


AN  has  a  progressive  intellect,  instead  of  a 
stationary   instinct.     He    has    a    conscience 


THOUGHTS.  13 

which  can  cle^vve,  like  lightning,  those  ethical  knots 
into  which  truth  and  error  have  been  most  com- 
pactly twisted.  He  has  an  inborn  religious  senti- 
ment that  whispers  of  a  God  to  his  inmost  soul,  as 
a  shell  taken  from  the  deep  yet  echoes  forever  the 
ocean's  roar  ;  and  as  a  shell  cannot  be  carried  so 
far  from  the  sea  as  to  forget  its  native  tones,  so 
man  can  never  sweep  so  far  in  his  aphelion  from 
God  as  to  escape  the  justice  of  his  law  and  the 
beauty  of  his  light.  Man  has  a  spontaneous  pre- 
sentiment of  immortality,  and  of  a  Supreme  Being, 
near  to  whom,  or  away  from  whom,  he  must  spend 
an  eternity. 

FREE-THINKING. 

CAN  anything  mark  more  strikingly  the  degi'a- 
dation  and  desecration  which  oppression  has 
wrought  upon  the  human  soul,  than  the  fact,  that 
the  word  which  should  have  been  the  noblest  appel- 
lation in  our  language  has  been  made  a  term  of 
contumely  and  reproach?  In  former  times,  men 
who  thought  outside  of  their  rulers'  creeds  were 
vilified  as  "free-thinkers,"  —  an  epithet  which  still 
has  a  tone  of  opprobrium  in  it.  But  for  their  free 
thinking,  what  troglodytes  and  monkeys  should  we 
now  be,  if  we  should  have  been  in  existence  at  all ! 


14  THOUGHTS 


THE   GREAT  FUTURE. 


MEN  who  tak( 
of  nations, 


:e  any  enlarged  view  of  the  course 
and  the  destiny  of  the  human 
race,  see  that  a  new  era  has  opened  upon  the 
world.  The  history  of  the  future  is  to  be  widely 
different  from  that  of  the  past.  The  stream  of 
time  is  changing  its  direction.  It  is  about  to  pass 
through  moral  regions,  such  as  in  its  whole 
previous  course,  since  it  broke  from  the  original 
fountain,  it  has  never  traversed  before.  We  must 
prepare  ourselves  to  move  with  safety  through  the 
new  realms  we  are  entering. 

COMPLETED   EDUCATIOX. 

THE  education  already  given  to  the  people 
creates  the  necessity  of  giving  them  more. 
What  has  been  done  has  awakened  new  and  un- 
paralleled energies ;  and  the  mental  and  moral 
forces  Avhich  have  been  roused  into  activity,  are 
now  to  be  regulated.  These  forces  are  not  me- 
chanical, which  expend  their  activity  and  subside 
to  rest ;  they  are  spiritual  forces,  endued  with  an 
inextinguishable  principle  of  life  and  progression. 
The  coiled  spring  of  the  machine  loses  power  as  it 
unwinds  ;  but  the  living  soul  of  man,  once  con- 
scious of  its  power,  cannot  be  quelled  :   it  multiplies 


THOUGHTS.  15 


its  energy,  and  accelerates  its  speed,  in  an  upward 
or  downward  direction,  forever. 


KXOIVLEDGE  BUT  AX  IXSTRUMEXT. 

OUR  age  has  unwonted  strength,  and  is  ad- 
vancing to  greater ;  but  it  wants  the  spirit  of 
docility  and  teachableness.  Wisdom  must  be  con- 
stituted its  guardian.  Let  us  think,  betimes,  that 
power  and  freedom  may  be  a  curse  as  w^ell  as  a 
blessing ;  that  knowledge  is  but  an  instrument, 
which  the  profligate  and  the  flagitious  may  use  as 
well  as  the  brave  and  the  just. 

ED  UC ATI  ox   OF  ALL. 

TRUTHS,  no  matter  how  momentous  or  en- 
during, are  nothing  to  the  individual  until  he 
appreciates  them,  and  feels  their  force,  and  acknowl- 
edges their  sovereignty.  He  cannot  bow  to  their 
majesty  until  he  sees  their  power.  All  the  blind, 
then,  and  all  the  ignorant,  —  that  is,  all  the  chil- 
dren, —  must  be  educated  up  to  the  point  of  per- 
ceiving and  admitting  truth,  and  acting  according 
to  its  mandates. 


I 


DIFFUSIOX  AXD  EXTEXSIOX  OF  KXOWLEDGE. 

T  is  said  that  we  are  an  educated  people  ;  and 
there   is  a  sense  in  which  this  declaration  is 


16  THOTTGHTS. 

true.  Such  an  assertion,  however,  supposes  a  com- 
parison. .  .  .  Compared  with  many,  and  even  with 
most  people  on  the  earth,  the  result  would  be  in 
our  favor ;  but  compared  with  what  we  may  be, 
and  should  be,  our  present  inferiority  is  un- 
speakable. 

ACTION  OF  GOVERNMENT  IN  EDUCATION. 

HOW  poor  was  the  gift  of  Midas,  fabled  to  pos- 
sess the  po^\  ev  of  turning  whatever  he  touched 
into  gold,  compared  with  the  power  of  turning  gold 
into  knowledge,  and  wisdom,  and  virtue !  How 
glorious  is  the  prerogative  of  the  legislator  when 
he  faithfully  uses  his  privileges  for  the  benefit  of 
his  race !  Though  he  fill  but  a  brief  hour  of 
political  existence,  yet  in  that  hour  he  can  speak  a 
word  which  shall  enhance  the  happiness  of  posterity 
at  the  distance  of  a  thousand  years.  This  is  tlie 
only  worthy  immortality  upon  earth —  not  to  leave 
a  name,  to  be  upon  the  lips  of  men,  but  to  do  acts 
which  shall  improve  the  condition  of  men  through 
the  flowing  ages. 

TAKE  CARE  OF  CIRCUMSTANCES. 

LET  US,  at  least,  make  the  way  which  leads  to 
right   as   open   and   accessible  as  that  which 
leads  to  wrong.     Children  are  governed  by  circum- 


THOUGHTS.  17 

stances  as  well  as  by  innate  tendencies.  If  we  can- 
not prescribe  the  natural  tendencies  of  children,  we 
can  prescribe,  in  a  great  measure,  the  circumstances 
in  which  they  are  placed.  The  first  may  belong  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  Nature  ;  the  last  is  within  our 
own. 

LIBRARIES  IX  COMMON  SCHOOLS. 

THE  benefit  of  libraries  in  common  schools  is  a 
modern  discovery.  But  it  is  one  which  is  des- 
tined to  increase,  almost  indefinitely,  the  efficiency 
of  those  schools.  .  .  .  Good  books  are  to  the  young 
mind  what  the  warming  sun  and  the  refreshing  rain 
of  spring  are  to  the  seeds  which  have  lain  dormant 
in  the  frosts  of  winter.  They  are  more,  for  they 
may  save  from  that  which  is  worse  than  death,  as 
well  as  bless  wdth  that  which  is  better  than  life. 

LIBERTY  OF  THOU  GET. 

THE  two  subjects  respecting  which  men,  for 
ages,  had  been  most  straitened,  pent  up,  walled 
in  on  every  side,  were  those  which  embraced  the 
political  condition  and  the  future  destinies  of  man  ; 
that  is,  the  relations  of  men  to  each  other  in  the 
social  compact,  and  the  relations  of  man  to  his 
Maker.  No  wonder  that  men,  bursting  from  thral- 
dom, should  rush  into  error.  No  wonder  that  the 
2 


18  THOUGHTS. 

opinions  and  convictions  of  men  should  be  partial, 
incomplete,  and  therefore  false,  before  they  had 
time  to  collect  the  proofs  necessary  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  truth.  And  perhaps  we  ought  not  to 
be  surprised  that,  in  the  mean  time,  each  one  should 
seize,  and  hold  with  unyielding  tenacity,  those 
opinions  which,  to  his  peculiar  mind,  appear  to 
possess  the  holy  reality  of  truth,  and  that  he 
should  denounce  all  conflicting  opinions  as  hereti- 
cal and  ruinous. 

THE  SCHOOLS. 

THE  great  object  of  the  schools  —  an  object 
dear  to  the  heart  of  every  lover  of  his  kind  — 
is,  to  exercise  and  to  strengthen  the  minds  of  the 
children ;  to  save  them  from  vicious  associations 
and  from  depraved  habits  ;  to  lead  them  to  the 
perception  and  the  love  of  truth  in  the  exact 
sciences  ;  to  give  them  a  delight  in  exploring  the 
vast  world  of  natural  history,  where,  at  every  step, 
they  are  surrounded  by  proofs  of  the  greatness  and 
goodness  of  God  ;  and  thus  to  prepare  them,  as  far 
as  by  any  human  means  they  can  be  prepared,  to 
bring  a  clearer  and  stronger  mind  and  less  selfish 
and  impure  affections,  a  more  ardent  love  of  man 
and  a  higher  reverence  for  God,  to  the  decision  of 


THOUGHTS.  19 

those  momentous  questions  of  time  and  eternity 
which  in  the  last  resort  each  man  must  not  only 
decide  for  himself,  but  must  abide  the  consequences 
of  his  decision. 

VIRTUE  A   GROWTH. 

ARE  not  great  mistakes  committed  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  children,  by  acting  upon  the  sup- 
position that  they  can  grow  strong  in  virtuous 
resolutions  in  a  single  clay  f  If  all  our  active 
affections,  whether  good  or  bad,  are  the  result  of 
growth,  then  opportunity  must  be  allowed  for  the 
seeds  to  germinate   after  they  have  been  sown. 

PARENTAL  A  UTHORITY. 

NO  parent  or  teacher  should  ever  issue  a  com- 
mand without  the  highest  degree  of  certainty 
that  it  will  be  obeyed.  To  command  a  child  to  do 
or  to  abstain  from  doing  what,  under  the  circum- 
stances, he  will  probably  refuse  to  do  or  to  abstain 
from  doing,  is  as  false  to  duty  as  it  would  be  in  a 
general  to  engage,  voluntarily,  in  a  battle  where  be 
was  exposed  to  certain  defeat.  When  the  moral 
sense  is  weak,  and  the  propensities  strong,  we  must 
begin,  in  regard  to  the  former,  with  the  lightest 
conceivable  duties.      Present  no  temptation  to  the 


20  THOUGHTS. 

child  wliicli  he  has  not  strength  to  overcome.  Let 
the  temptation  be  increased  only  as  the  power  of 
resistance  is  strengthened. 

IMPOETAXCE  OF  EARLY  IMPRESSIONS. 

THERE  are  many  men  who  are  wholly  unable 
to  recollect  the  dimensions,  forms,  heights, 
lengths,  breadths,  colors,  &c.,  of  the  objects  they 
have  actually  seen.  Their  ideas  are  dim,  half- 
formed  ;  and  often,  when  they  endeavor  to  revive 
them,  they  will  not  reappear.  Hence  it  is  that 
honest  men  often  give  false  testimony  in  court. 
Witnesses  contradict  each  other  ;  they  expose  them- 
selves to  charges  of  perjury ;  and  the  only  reason 
why  their  evidence  is  not  perjury  is,  that  it  was  not 
given  with  the  intent  to  falsify.  Their  testimony 
violates  truth,  though  it  is  free  from  corruption  ; 
but  to  the  party,  against  whose  interest,  or  char- 
acter, or  life,  it  is  given,  it  does  all  the  mischief  of 
downright  perjury.  The  immediate  cause  of  this 
is  a  feebleness  in  perceiving  and  recollecting  objects, 
as  they  actually  exist,  or  events  as  they  actually 
have  happened ;  but  the  origin  of  it  was  laid  far 
back,  in  a  neglect  of  the  use  of  their  faculties  in 
childhood. 


THOUGHTS.  21 

EFFECTS   OF  IMPERFECT  TRAIXIXG. 

FROM  the  commeucement  of  our  government,  — 
nay,  before  that  commencement,  —  the  indi- 
viduals of  the  community,  with  more  or  less 
knowledge  of  the  cause  they  espoused,  decided  the 
most  important  questions  with  the  least  possible 
inquiry  or  consideration ;  and  questions  which 
have  now  convulsed  the  country  for  nearly  half  a 
century  (1841)  are  yet,  apparently,  as  far  from 
being  settled  as  when  they  first  arose.  The  parents 
contended  while  they  lived,  bequeathed  the  conten- 
tion to  their  children  when  they  died,  to  be  trans- 
mitted by  them  to  later  descendants.  How  im- 
mensely different  would  have  been  the  residt,  if, 
from  the  organization  of  the  government,  the  grand 
aim  had  been  to  train  the  then  rising  generation  to 
profoundness  of  thought  and  rectitude  of  purpose  ! 

Pn  YSICA  L  DE  TEIilORA  TION. 

THE  present  generation  is  suffering  incalculably 
under  an  ignorance  of  physical  education.  The 
fifteen  millions  of  the  United  States,  at  the  present 
day,  are  by  no  means  five  times  the  three  millions 
of  the  revolutionary  era.  Were  this  degeneracy 
attributable  to  mother  Nature,  we  should  compare 
her    to    a    fraudulent   manufacturer,    who,    having 


22  THOUGHTS. 

established  his  name  in  the  market  for  the  excel- 
lence of  his  fabrics,  should  avail  himself  of  his 
reputation  to  palm  off  subsequent  bales  or  pack- 
ages, with  the  same  stamp  or  ear-mark,  but  of 
meaner  quality.  .  .  .  The  old  hearts  of  oak  are 
gone.  Society  is  suffering  under  a  curvature  of  the 
spine.  If  deterioration  holds  on  at  its  present  rate, 
especially  in  our  cities,  we  shall  soon  be  a  bed-rid 
people.  .  .  .  The  intellect  will  never  be  sufficiently 
expanded  to  receive  a  system  of  truths,  and  single 
truths  cut  out  from  their  connections,  and  adopted 
without  reference  to  kindred  truths,  always  mis- 
lead. The  forces  of  the  soul  will  retreat  from 
the  forehead  to  the  hindhead,  and  the  brow,  that 
"  dome  of  thought  and  palace  of  the  soul,"  will  be 
narrow  and  "  villanously  low  ;  "  for  it  is  here  that 
Nature  sets  her  signet,  and  stamps  her  child  a  phi- 
losopher or  a  cretin. 

HUMAN  IMPROVABILITT. 

THE  capacities  of  mind  can  go  on  developing, 
improving,  perfecting,  as  long  as  the  cycles  of 
eternity  revolve.  For  this  improvement  of  the  race, 
a  high,  a  generous,  an  expansive  education  is  the 
true  and  efficient  means.  There  is  not  a  good  work 
which  the  hand  of  man  has  ever  undertaken,  which 


THOUGHTS.  23 

his  heart  has  ever  conceived,  which  does  not  require 
a  good  education  for  its  helper.  There  is  not  an  evil 
afflicting  the  earth  which  can  be  extii'pated  until 
the  auxiliary  of  education  shall  lend  its  mighty  aid. 

TREAT  WITH  liESPECT  THE  REASOXIXG  POWERS. 

IAVOULD  lay  down  a  general  principle,  which 
I  think  of  great  importance,  viz.,  that  the  fac- 
ulties by  which  we  reason  ought  never  to  be  em- 
ployed on  any  subject  when  the  logical  results  to 
which  sound  reasoning  would  arrive  are  not  the  true 
results.  If  the  thing  to  be  done  or  learned  is 
arbitrary,  let  it  be  done  by  force  of  authority,  of 
imitation,  of  mere  association  of  ideas ;  but  do  not 
maltreat  the  powers  of  reasoning  by  calling  in  their 
aid  when  their  responses  will  be  repudiated  as  soon 
as  uttered.  Apply  this  argument  to  teaching  the 
art  of  reading  English  by  learning  the  letters  of  our 
alphabet. 

THE  SPELLIXG-BOOK. 

IN  Scotland,  the  spelling-book  is  called  the  "  spell- 
book,"  and  we  ought  to  adopt  that  appellation 
here  ;  for,  as  it  is  often  used  with  us,  it  does  cast  a 
spell  over  the  faculties  of  children,  which,  generally, 
they  do  not  break  for  years,  and  oftentimes,  we  be- 


24  THOUGHTS. 

lieve,  never.  If  any  two  things  on  earth  should  be 
put  together  and  kept  together,  one  would  suppose 
that  it  should  be  the  idea  of  a  thing,  and  the  name 
of  that  thing.  The  spelling-book,  however,  is  a 
most  artful  and  elaborate  contrivance,  by  which 
words  are  separated  from  their  meanings,  so  that  the 
words  can  be  transferred  into  the  minds  of  the  pupil 
without  permitting  any  glimmer  of  the  meaning  to 
accompany  them.  A  spelling-book  is  a  collection 
of  signs  without  the  things  signified  —  of  words 
without  sense  —  a  dictionary  without  definitions. 
It  is  a  place  where  words  are  shut  up  and  im- 
pounded, so  that  their  significations  cannot  get  at 
them.  Yet,  formerly,  it  was  the  almost  universal 
practice  —  and  we  fear  it  is  now  nearly  so  —  to  keep 
children  two  or  three  years  in  the  spelling-book,  where 
the  mind's  eye  is  averted  from  the  objects,  qualities, 
and  relations  of  existing  things,  and  fastened  upon 
a  few  marks,  of  themselves  Avholly  uninteresting. 

PURITAN  IDEAS   OF  EDUCATION. 

EVEN  a  cursory  examination  of  the  character 
and  history  of  the  Puritans  will  sufiice  to  show 
that  they  paid  but  little  regard  to  the  sensibili- 
ties OF  CHiLDREX.  While  they  surpassed  their 
descendants  in  appreciating  more  highly  many  of 


THOUGHTS.  25 

the  great  demerits  of  character,  they  had  a  far  less 
adequate  conception  of  the  extent  and  variety  of 
influences  which  contribute  to  the  formation  of  the 
youthful  mind.  In  fortitude,  in  a  rigid  morality  that 
was  proof  against  the  solicitations  of  natural  affection, 
in  a  punctilious  adherence  to  every  iota  of  their  reli- 
gious faith,  —  in  these  qualities  they  were  armed  as 
in  panoply,  always  ready  for  battle  or  for  martyrdom. 
But  they  were  too  austere  and  stoical  to  exercise 
kindly,  gentle,  and  benignant  influences  upon  child- 
hood. Hence  they  brought  the  mightiest  principles, 
—  considerations  embracing  all  time,  and  all  eter- 
nity, —  an  enginery  whose  missiles  were  infinite 
weal  or  infinite  Avoe,  —  to  bear  upon  tender,  un- 
formed, thoughtless  natures,  whose  whole  experi- 
ence was  but  of  yesterday,  and  whose  futurity  con- 
sisted only  of  to-morrow.  But  almost  entirely,  and 
disastrously,  did  they  neglect  those  higher  tenden- 
cies and  adaptations,  which,  by  being  proportioned 
to  the  capacities  of  the  juvenile  mind,  have  a  far 
more  important  bearing  upon  the  character  than 
the  mightiest  truths,  of  which  no  adequate  compre- 
hension can  be  had.  They  did  not  reflect  that  the 
slightest  circumstance  which  a  child  can  understand 
is  of  more  importance  to  his  mental  growth  than 
the  exposition  of  a  universal  law,  which,  from  its 


26  THOUGHTS. 

very  universality,  is  beyond  the  grasp  of  his  con- 
ceptions. Every  child  Avill  feel  a  deeper  interest  in 
a  perception  of  the  fact,  that  its  plaything  may  fall 
and  be  broken,  than  in  the  law  of  gravitation  which 
holds  the  solar  system  together.  But  a  considera- 
tion of  the  aggregate  force  of  minute  and  subtile 
influences,  effective  because  proportioned  and  adapted 
to  infantile  and  juvenile  susceptibilities,  and  con- 
trolling because  of  their  endless  repetition,  did  not 
enter  into  the  stern  philosophy  of  the  Puritan  fa- 
thers. Hence  one  great  source  of  their  neglect  of 
those  appliances  and  accommodations,  which,  by 
their  perpetual  action  upon  the  minds  of  the  young, 
exert  an  almost  transforming  poAver  over  their  dis- 
positions and  tastes,  and  shape  the  fluidity  of  their 
nature,  while  it  is  in  the  process  of  hardening  into 
the  solid  substance  of  intellect  and  will.  The  infant 
soul,  on  its  first  introduction  into  life,  is  unformed, 
pliant,  aerial,  subject  to  the  gentlest  impulse,  and 
fashioned  most  readily  by  the  lightest  touches  ;  — 
it  is  like  a  morning  mist  upon  a  hill-top,  whose  form 
a  zephyr  will  change,  while  a  thunderbolt  would 
pass  through  it  traceless. 


THOUGHTS.  27 

SCHOOL-HOUSES. 

WE  can  now  call  to  mind  several  cases  which 
we  have  witnessed  in  travelling  over  the 
state,  where  barns,  piggeries,  and  other  outbuild- 
ings have  been  erected  according  to  the  most  ap- 
proved style  of  Gothic  architecture,  and  the  abode 
of  brute  animals  decorated  with  the  profusion 
of  ornament  which  belongs  to  that  finical  order. 
But  the  models  of  the  old  school-houses  did  not 
come  from  the  classic  land  of  the  East ;  their  ori- 
gin was  aboriginal,  —  not  copied  from  Greece  or 
Rome,  but  rather  from  the  Pequots  and  Narra- 
gansetts.  Not  only  would  many  of  our  school-houses 
furnish  an  illustration  in  geography,  because  five 
steps  would  carry  the  pupil  through  the  five  zones, 
but  astronomy  also  could  be  studied  in  them 
to  advantage,  for  through  the  rents  in  the  roof 
the  stars  might  all  be  seen  as  they  come  to  the 
zenith. 

THERE  is  an  unspeakable  gratification  in  stand- 
ing by  a  good  cause  in  the  day  of  its  feebleness 
or  its  adversity.  There  is  a  deeper  pleasure  in  fol- 
lowing truth  to  the  scaftbld  or  the  cross,  than  in 
joining  the  multitudinous  retinue,  and  mingling  our 


28  THOUGHTS. 

shouts  with  theirs,  when  victorious  error  celebrates 
its  triumphs. 

Whatever  statesman  or  sage  will  effect  reforms 
upon  a  gigantic  or  godlike  scale  must  begin  with 
the  young.  He  must  labor  in  accordance  with  a 
principle  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  reforms, — 
which  prevents  errors  by  preoccupying  the  ground 
before  they  invade  it,  and  fortify  themselves  in  it. 
The  antidotes  are  so  cheap  that  the  poorest  com- 
munity can  supply  them ;  the  remedies  so  costly, 
that  they  will  beggar  the  treasury  of  a  prince. 
Here  is  a  field  of  labor  more  luxuriant  than  ever 
Ceres  planted  —  a  field  from  which  the  gleaner  will 
bear  home  richer  sheaves  than  can  ever  reward  the 
toil  of  the  reaper  in  any  other  harvest.  .  .  . 

It  has  been  found  that  missionary  stations  in  for- 
eign lands  could  not  sustain  themselves  and  carry 
oU  their  evangelizing  work  with  anything  above  a 
very  low  degree  of  success  until  they  began  with 
the  children,  and  trained  them  up  in  the  nurture 
and  admonition  of  the  Lord.  What  a  lesson  is 
taught,  by  this  impressive  fact,  to  all  who  have  ears 
to  hear ! 

GOOD  BEnAVIOR. 

MANNERS    easily   and    rapidly   mature    into 
morals.     As  childhood  advances  to  manhood, 


THOUGHTS.  29 

the  transition  from  bad  manners  to  bad  morals  is 
almost  imperceptible.  Vulgar  and  obscene  forms  of 
speecli  keep  vulgar  and  obscene  objects  before  the 
mind,  engender  impure  images  in  the  imagination, 
and  make  unlawful  desires  prurient.  From  the 
prevalent  state  of  the  mind,  actions  proceed,  as 
water  rises  from  a  fountain.  Hence  what  was 
originally  only  a  word  or  a  phrase  becomes  a 
thought,  is  meretriciously  embellished  by  the  im- 
agination, is  inflamed  into  a  vicious  desire,  gains 
strength  and  boldness  by  being  always  made  wel- 
come, until  at  last,  under  some  urgent  temptation, 
it  dares,  for  once,  to  put  on  the  visible  form  of 
action  ;  it  is  then  ventured  upon  again  and  again, 
more  frequently  and  less  warily,  until  repetition 
forges  the  chains  of  habit ;  and  then  language,  im- 
agination, desire,  and  habit  bind  their  victim  in  the 
prison-house  of  sin.  In  this  way,  profane  language 
Avears  away  the  reverence  for  things  sacred  and 
holy  ;  and  a  child  who  has  been  allowed  to  follow, 
and  mock,  and  hoot  at  an  intemperate  man  in  the 
streets,  is  far  more  likely  to  become  intemperate 
himself  than  if  he  had  been  accustomed  to  regard 
him  with  pity,  as  a  fallen  brother,  and  with  a  sacred 
abhorrence,  as  one  self-brutified  or  demonized.  So, 
on  the  other  hand,  purity  and  chasteness  of  language 


30  THOUGHTS. 

tend  to  preserve  purity  and  cliasteness  of  thought 
and  of  taste ;  they  repel  licentious  imaginings ; 
they  delight  in  the  unsullied  and  the  untainted,  and 
all  their  tendencies  and  aptitudes  are  on  the  side  of 
virtue.  Excepting  prior-formed  habits,  habit  can 
overcome  anything  but  instinct,  and  can  greatly 
modify  even  that. 

CAUSES  OF  NECROMANCY,  ASTROLOGY,  cj-c. 

IN  all  countries  and  times,  it  has  been  an  impulse, 
if  not  an  instinct,  of  the  human  mind  to  long 
for  a  knowledge  of  the  future  —  to  desire  to  lift 
the  curtain  that  hides  coming  events  from  our  eyes. 
To  obtain  prescience  of  future  fortunes,  whether 
individual  or  national,  men  have  vainly  watched  the 
flight  of  birds  as  they  obeyed  the  great  law  of  their 
migration  ;  they  have  laid  open  and  examined  the 
entrails  of  animals  ;  they  have  traced  the  courses 
and  conjunctions  of  the  stars  ;  they  have  pretended 
to  wake  the  dead,  and  to  wring  from  them  the  se- 
crets which  time  holds  in  its  bosom,  and  they  have 
put  the  gods  themselves  to  the  question,  to  make 
them  foretell  the  fate  they  had  foredoomed.  Hence 
numerous  orders  of  men  have  been  set  apart  to 
the  work  of  divination  and  prophecy  —  the  necro- 
mancer, the  soothsayer,  the  augur,  the  astrologer. 


THOUGUTS.  31 

Heuce  patriots  have  wrestled  with  destiny  to  insure 
the  salvation  of  their  country,  and  priests  have 
supplicated  Heaven  to  vouchsafe  those  temporal 
blessings  which  they  were  doing  so  little  to  obtain. 
Yet  the  solution  of  this  awful  mystery  lay  before 
them,  like  an  open  book,  while  they  were  searching 
afar  off — looking  among  the  silent  stars,  and  ques- 
tioning the  uuanswering  dead  —  to  find  it.  It  lay 
in  the  agencies  for  good  or  for  evil,  Avhich  were 
forming  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion around  them. 

EVERT  INDIVIDUAL'S  EIGHT   TO  EDUCATION. 

I  BELIEVE  in  the  existence  of  a  great,  immu- 
table principle  of  natural  law,  or  natural  ethics, 
—  a  principle  antecedent  to  all  human  institutions, 
and  incapable  of  being  abrogated  by  any  ordinances 
of  man,  —  a  principle  of  divine  origin,  clearly  legi- 
ble in  the  ways  of  Providence  as  those  ways  are 
manifested  in  the  order  of  nature,  and  in  the  history 
of  the  race,  which  proves  the  absolute  right  of  every 
human  being  that  comes  into  the  world  to  an  edu- 
cation ;  and  which,  of  course,  proves  the  correlative 
duty  of  every  government  to  see  that  the  means  of 
that  education  are  provided  for  all. 

In  regard  to  the  application  of  this  principle  of 


32  THOUGHTS. 

natural  law,  —  that  is,  in  regard  to  the  extent  of 
the  education  to  be  provided  for  all  at  the  public 
expense,  —  some  differences  of  opinion  may  fairly 
exist,  under  different  political  organizations  ;  but 
under  a  republican  government,  it  seems  clear  that 
the  minimum  of  this  education  can  never  be  less 
than  such  as  is  sufficient  to  qualify  each  citizen 
for  the  civil  and  social  duties  he  will  be  called  to 
discharge  ;  —  such  an  education  as  teaches  the  indi- 
vidual the  great  laws  of  bodily  health ;  as  qualifies 
for  the  fulfilment  of  parental  duties  ;  as  is  indispen- 
sable for  the  civil  functions  of  a  witness  or  juror; 
as  is  necessary  for  the  voter  in  municipal  affairs  ; 
and  finally,  for  the  faithful  and  conscientious  dis- 
charge of  all  those  duties  which  devolve  upon  the 
inheritor  of  a  portion  of  the  sovereignty  of  this 
great  republic. 

ORIGIX  OF  THE   WORDS  URBANE,   POLITE,   CIVIL. 

A  PEOPLE  cannot  pass  from  a  state  of  bar- 
barism to  one  of  refinement  and  civilization 
without  casting  off  the  exterior  of  rude  and  rugged 
manners,  as  well  as  by  becoming  skilful  in  the  arts 
and  learned  in  the  sciences.  This  change  from 
the  coarse  to  the  refined  is  supposed  to  have  first 
taken  place  in  cities  and  in  the  courts  of   kings. 


THOUGHTS.  33 

From  cities  and  from  courts  are  derived  almost  all 
the  words  which  we  now  use  to  express  the  man- 
ners of  a  lady  or  a  gentleman  ;  while  the  words 
which  express  inelegance  and  want  of  refinement 
are  borrowed  from  the  country.  Etymologically, 
the  words  urbane  and  urhanity  are  derived  from  a 
Latin  word  signifying  a  city  ;  while  their  opposites, 
rustic  and  rusticity,  signify  qualities  which  were 
supposed  to  belong  to  the  country.  The  word 
-polite,  also,  has  a  derivation  precisely  similar, 
though  it  comes  from  another  language ;  while 
impolite  means  something  unlike  the  city.  Civility, 
in  the  same  way,  is  an  abstract  term,  derived  from 
the  manners  of  city  residents  ;  incivility,  from  those 
who  resided  elsewhere.  So  courtesy  was  borrowed 
from  the  court,  and  indicates  the  elegance  of  man- 
ners, the  complaisance  and  the  kindness  which 
belong  to  a  true  gentleman  or  lady. 

But,  since  the  signification  and  use  of  these  and 
similar  words  have  become  fixed,  great  changes 
have  takerf  place.  On  the  one  hand,  refinement 
has  often  run  into  a  hateful  fastidiousness,  while 
the  spirit  of  true  politeness  and  civility  has  evapo- 
rated, leaving  nothing  but  heartless  conventionalism 
behind ;  and,  as  a  natural  consequence,  an  adhe- 
rence to  certain  arbitrary  forms,  in  the  intercourse 
3  . 


34  THOUGHTS. 

of  life,  has  been  deemed  of  more  value  than  benevo- 
lence and  sincerity.  On  the  other  hand,  the  con- 
dition of  the  masses  has  been  greatly  improved.  In 
many  nations  they  have  been  elevated  from  the 
state  of  serfs  and  slaves  to  the  enjoyment  of  a  few 
natural  and  civil  rights,  and  occasionally  they 
have  been  allowed  to  exercise  political  franchises. 
In  our  own  country,  the  whole  people,  by  a  single 
revolutionary  act,  have  declared  themselves  to  be 
freemen  and  sovereigns ;  as  freemen,  repudiating 
all  foreign  authority,  and  as  sovereigns,  assuming 
the  exclusive  right  to  govern  themselves.  If,  then, 
"with  us,  every  man  calls  himself  a  citizen,  his  con- 
duct should  be  characterized  by  civility  ;  and  if  all 
the  people,  by  virtue  of  their  political  franchises, 
are  sovereigns,  and  have  a  right  of  presentation  at 
court,  the  manners  of  all  should  be  stamped  with 
courtesy. 

INFLUENCE  OF  A   GOOD   TEACHER. 

TO  save  a  considerable  portion  of  the  rising 
generation  from  falling  back  into  the  condi- 
tion of  half-civilized  or  savage  life,  Avhat  other  in- 
strumentality does  society  afford  than  to  send  into 
every  obscure  and  hidden  district  in  the  state  a 
young  man  or  a  young  woman,  whose  education  is 


THOUGHTS.  35 

sound ;  whose  language  is  well-selected ;  whose 
pronunciation  and  tones  of  voice  are  correct  and 
attractive  ;  whose  manners  are  gentle  and  refined  ; 
all  whose  topics  of  conversation  are  elevating  and 
instructive  ;  whose  benignity  of  heart  is  constantly- 
manifested  in  acts  of  civility,  courtesy  and  kind- 
ness ;  and  who  spreads  a  nameless  charm  over 
whatever  circle  may  be  entered.  Such  a  person 
should  the  teacher  of  every  common  school  be. 
Such  a  teacher,  by  associating  with  the  children  of 
the  school  for  a  considerable  portion  of  the  time 
each  day ;  by  remaining  with  them  for  weeks  and 
months  successively ;  by  having  an  opportunity  to 
observe  their  conduct  towards  each  other,  and  thus 
to  become  acquainted  with  their  various  disposi- 
tions ;  by  gaining  access  to  their  minds  through  the 
delightful  medium  of  instruction  ;  —  and,  finally,  by 
prolonging  this  relationship  through  all  the  suscep- 
tive and  impressible  years  of  childhood  and  youth, 
—  such  a  teacher,  so  ftir  as  it  may  be  in  the  power 
of  any  mortal  agency  to  do  it,  may  mould  the 
habits  and  manners  of  the  rising  generation  into 
the  pleasing  forms  of  propriety  and  decorum,  and, 
by  laying  their  foundations  in  the  principles  of  jus- 
tice, magnanimity,  and  affection,  may  give  them  an 
ever-during  permanence. 


w 


36  TU  OUGHTS. 

SOURCE  OF   THE   WEALTH  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

HENCE  comes  the  wealth  of  Massachusetts? 
I  do  not  mean  the  gorgeous  wealth  which  is 
displayed  in  the  voluptuous  and  too  often  enervating 
residences  of  the  affluent,  but  that  golden  mean  of 
property,  —  such  as  Agar  asked  for  in  his  perfect 
prayer,  —  which  carries  blessings  in  its  train  to 
thousands  of  householders ;  which  spreads  solid 
comfort  and  competence  through  the  dwellings  of 
the  land  ;  which  furnishes  the  means  of  instruction, 
of  social  pleasures  and  refinement,  to  the  citizens 
at  large  ;  Avhich  saves  from  the  cruel  temptations 
of  penury.  The  families  scattered  over  her  hills 
and  along  her  valleys  have  not  merely  a  shelter 
from  the  inclemencies  of  the  seasons,  but  the  sanc- 
tuary of  a  home.  Not  only  food,  but  books,  are 
spread  upon  their  tables.  Her  commonest  houses 
have  the  means  of  hospitality  ;  they  have  appliances 
for  sickness,  and  resources  laid  up  against  accident 
and  the  infirmities  of  age.  "Whether  in  her  rural 
districts  or  her  populous  towns,  a  wandering, 
native-born  beggar  is  a  prodigy,  and  the  eleven 
millions  of  dollars  deposited  in  her  Savings  Insti- 
tutions do  not  more  loudly  proclaim  the  frugality 
and  providence  of  the  past,  than  they  foretell  the 
competence  and  enjoyments  of  the  future. 


THOUGHTS.  37 

One  copious,  exhaustless  fountain  supplies  all 
this  abundance.  It  is  education  —  the  intellectual, 
moral,  and  religious  education  of  the  people. 

Having  no  other  mines  to  work,  Massachusetts 
has  mined  into  the  human  intellect,  and  from  its 
limitless  resources  she  has  won  more  sustaining 
and  enduring  prosperity  and  happiness,  than  if  she 
had  been  founded  on  a  stratification  of  silver  and 
gold,  reaching  deeper  down  than  geology  has  yet 
penetrated.  From  her  high  religious  convictions  she 
has  learned  this  great  lesson  —  to  set  a  value  upon 
time.  Regarding  the  faculties  as  the  gift  of  God, 
she  has  felt  bound  both  to  use  and  to  improve  them. 
Verily,  verily,  not  as  we  ought  have  we  obeyed 
the  laws  of  Jehovah,  or  imitated  the  divine  ex- 
ample of  the  Savior ;  and  yet,  for  such  imperfect 
obedience  and  distant  imitation  as  we  have  ren- 
dered, God  has  showered  down  manna  from  the 
heavens,  and  opened  a  rock  whence  flow  living 
waters  to  gladden  every  thirsty  place. 

GOD  SAID,   ''LET  THERE  BE  LIGHT:' 

MAGNIFICENT  indeed  was  the  material  cre- 
ation when,  suddenly  blazing  forth  in  mid- 
space,  the  new-born  sun  dispelled  the  darkness  of 
the  ancient  night.     But  infinitely  more  magnificent 


38  THOUGHTS. 

is  it  when  the  human  soul  rays  forth  its  subtler  and 
swifter  beams  ;  when  the  light  of  the  senses  irra- 
diates all  outward  things,  revealing  the  beauty  of 
their  colors  and  the  exquisite  symmetry  of  their 
proportions  and  forms ;  when  the  light  of  reason 
penetrates  to  their  invisible  properties  and  laws, 
and  displays  all  those  hidden  relations  that  make 
up  all  the  sciences  ;  when  the  light  of  conscience 
illumines  the  moral  world,  separating  truth  from 
error,  and  virtue  from  vice.  The  light  of  the 
newly-kindled  sun,  indeed,  was  glorious.  It  struck 
upon  all  the  planets,  and  waked  into  existence  their 
myriad  capacities  of  life  and  joy.  As  it  rebounded 
from  them,  and  showed  other  vast  orbs,  all  wheel- 
ing, circle  beyond  circle,  in  their  stupendous  courses, 
the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy.  That  light  sped 
onward,  beyond  Sirius,  beyond  the  Pole-Star,  be- 
yond Orion  and  the  Pleiades,  and  is  still  speeding 
onward  into  the  abysses  of  space.  But  the  light 
of  the  human  soul  flies  swifter  than  the  light  of  the 
sun,  and  outshines  its  meridian  blaze.  It  can  em- 
brace not  only  the  sun  of  our  system,  but  all  suns 
and  galaxies  of  suns  ;  ay !  the  soul  is  capable  of 
knowing  and  enjoying  Him  who  created  the  suns 
themselves  ;  and  when  those  starry  lustres  that  now 
glorify  the  firmament  shall  wax  dim,  and  fade  away 


THOUGHTS.  39 

like  a  wasted  taper,  the  light  of  the  soul  shall  still 
remain  ;  nor  time,  nor  cloud,  nor  any  power  but 
its  own  perversity,  shall  ever  quench  its  briglitness. 
Whenever  a  human  soul  is  born  into  the  world,  God 
stands  over  it,  and  pronounces  the  sublime  fiat, 
"  Let  there  be  light !  "  And  may  the  time  soon  come 
when  all  human  governments  shall  cooperate  with 
the  divine  government  in  carrying  this  benediction 
and  baptism  into  fulfilment. 

"  THE   CHILD  IS  FATHER   OF  THE  MAN." 

TAKE  the  infant  now  in  your  arms,  and  train  it 
jyhysicaUy.  It  is  now  well  formed,  full  of  mus- 
cular powers,  compacted  of  elastic  fibres.  Its  body 
is  like  a  close-woven  tissue  of  well-tempered  steel 
springs.  What  a  magazine  of  energies  is  a  little 
babe !  What  strength,  what  robustness,  what 
celerity,  are  in  him  !  How  many  journeys,  across 
continents  if  need  be,  on  errands  of  mercy  and 
love,  may  lie  snugly  packed  away  in  those  little 
feet !  Look  at  those  little  hands,  now  seeming  so 
empty  and  impotent.  Yet  what  mechanical  con- 
trivances may  come  from  them  ;  what  new  steam 
engines,  power  presses,  telescopes  ;  what  treasures 
of  goods,  and  garments,  and  gold,  for  almsgiving, 
for  charitable  distributions,  for  founding  hospitals, 


40  THOUGHTS. 

schools,  universities,  for  sending  boon  and  blessing 
to  other  lands  and  climes  !  From  between  that  little 
right  thumb  and  finger,  what  volumes  may  flow  out 
—  poetry,  history,  philosophy,  ethics  !  In  those  yet 
inarticulating  lips,  what  tones  and  speeches  of  kind- 
ness and  love,  sweeter  than  ever  came  from  lyre  or 
lute,  clearer  than  ever  came  from  clarion,  sounding 
ten  thousand  times  farther  than  any  that  ever  pealed 
from  organ  or  orchestra,  penetrating  through  all 
the  recesses  of  the  heart,  and  carrying  benediction 
and  joy  into  all  its  depths  ;  what  orations,  what 
sermons,  what  advocacy  of  the  right  that  shall 
ransom  the  wronged,  what  thunders  against  the 
oppressor  that  shall  break  the  captive's  chains ! 
May  not  all  these  stand  behind  that  vocal  appa- 
ratus, as  it  were  behind  a  curtain,  ready,  when  the 
occasions  come,  to  leap  into  performance  and  con- 
summation? Now,  what  shall  be  done  with  all 
these  exquisitely  wrought  instruments,  with  these 
marvellous  powers  and  capabilities  ?  Shall  they  be 
mutilated,  destroyed,  like  Orient  pearl  and  gem  in 
the  hands  of  a  false  lapidary?  Or  shall  they  be 
cultivated,  trained,  evolved  into  the  fulness  of  life, 
changed  from  the  possible  into  the  actual,  from  the 
capacity  into  the  reality  ?  Shall  they  not  be  rescued 
from  all  doubt  and  fear,  and  pass  beyond  hope,  and 


THOUGHTS.  41 

be  securely  fixed  and  uncbangeable  in  blessed,  im- 
mortal, indestructible  truth  and  history,  for  the 
coming  ages  to  rejoice  in? 

A  NEW  RACE. 

THE  gay,  guileless,  thoughtless  young !  The 
young,  ignorant,  yet  needing  all  knowledge  to 
save  them  from  harm  ;  thoughtful  only  of  the  pres- 
ent moment,  yet  embarked  on  the  voyage  of  eternity  ; 
too  careless  to  save  a  toy,  yet  intrusted  with  un- 
limited treasures ;  blind,  though  environed  with 
perils  ;  as  unconscious  of  the  glorious  enthusiasm 
or  of  the  terrible  passions  that  lie  sleeping  in  their 
bosoms,  as  is  the  cloud  of  the  tempest  and  the 
lightning  which  it  inwraps  in  its  folds,  —  it  is 
of  these  precious,  immortal  beings,  that  we  say, 
Here  is  a  new  race  ;  begin  once  more  ! 

STUDY  OF  ASTRONOMY. 

ASTRONOMY  is  one  of  the  sublimest  fields  of 
human  investigation.  The  mind  that  grasps 
its  facts  and  principles  receives  something  of  the 
enlargement  and  grandeur  belonging  to  the  science 
itself.  It  is  a  quickener  of  devotion.  All  its  prob- 
lems and  its  truths  not  only  expand  the  intellect, 
but  they  are  effusive  of  a  religious  influence. 


42  THOUGHTS. 

EDUCATION  IX  A  REPUBLIC. 

IN  many  of  the  more  enlightened  yet  arbitrary 
governments  of  Europe,  where  the  great  doc- 
trines of  human  rights  are  dimly  seen  in  theory, 
and  still  more  dimly  recognized  in  practice,  a  dis- 
tinction prevails  in  regard  to  the  education  of  the 
community  at  large,  which  should  be  sedulously 
excluded  from  a  republican  system.  According  to 
this  distinction,  all  the  avocations  of  men  naturally 
arrange  themselves  under  three  heads.  The  first 
class  embraces  all  those  industrial  employments 
where  we  act  with  material  instruments  upon 
material  things  —  with  matter  upon  matter.  This 
includes  all  mere  manual  laborers,  —  the  hewers 
of  wood,  the  drawers  of  water,  ditchers,  delvcrs, 
&c.  In  the  second  class  are  comprised  all  those 
who  act  by  mind  upon  matter — the  master  mason, 
or  architect,  head  machinists,  head  miners,  forest- 
ers, engineers,  &c.  The  third  class  are  those  who 
act  by  mind  upon  mind  —  the  orator,  the  poet, 
historian,  statesman,  &c.  Different  courses  of  edu- 
cation are  projected  to  meet  the  supposed  necessity 
of  these  different  grades.  But  how  incongruous 
and  absurd  are  these  notions  among  a  people  by  the 
theory  of  whose  institutions  the  chief  magistracy  of 
the  state  or  of  the  nation  is  open  to  the  poorest  boy 
that  is  born  in  the  land  ! 


THOUGHTS.  43 

THE  LUIITATIOXS   OF  EDUCATION. 

ACCORDING  to  the  highest  views  of  educa- 
tion, but  few  are  educated.  Alas !  such  is 
the  truth  —  the  melancholy,  incontestable  truth. 
The  past  history  and  the  present  condition  of 
the  world  —  intemperance,  w^ar,  slavery,  bigotry, 
pride,  uncharitableness,  self-seeking  —  prove  it  to 
be  true.  But  what  is  the  moral  conclusion  from 
these  admitted  premises?  Surely  not  that  we 
should  despair,  but  that  we  should  labor,  that  we 
should  aganize  with  laboring.  The  present  con- 
dition of  the  race  is  as  much  below  attainable 
perfection  as  it  is  above  possible  abasement.  The 
empyrean  above  is  as  much  without  a  dome  that 
shall  forbid  our  ascent,  as  the  abyss  below  is  with- 
out a  bottom  that  shall  arrest  our  fall.  In  mid-space 
we  stand.  Ascent  and  descent  are  equally  open 
to  us. 

THE  EDUCATED  AND   THE   UNEDUCATED  MAN. 

BOTH  the  educated  and  the  uneducated  man 
stand  in  the  same  material  universe ;  the 
same  heavens  bend  over  them,  and  the  same  earth 
stretches  out  beneath  their  feet.  Upon  the  eye  of 
each  descends  the  light  of  the  same  sun  and  the 
same  stars,  and  their  ears  are  forever  open  to  the 


44  THOUGHTS. 

same  harmonies  of  nature.  Yet,  while  the  one  rec- 
ognizes the  overwhehning  proofs  of  the  power,  and 
the  wisdom,  and  the  goodness  of  God,  the  other  is 
blind  amidst  the  splendors  of  the  universe,  and  deaf 
to  that  perpetual  chorus  of  praise  which  ascends 
from  all  created  things  to  their  Creator. 

DOES  INTELLECTUAL  POWER  MAKE  A  MAN 
VIRTU  oust 

A  MAN,  who,  like  an  inebriate,  an  epicure,  or  a 
libertine,  avails  himself  of  the  arts  and  powers 
of  civilization  to  gratify  his  appetites  and  passions, 
is  neither  a  civilized  man  nor  a  barbarian.  He  is 
a  sub-barbarian.  His  place  in  the  scale  of  human- 
ity is  to  be  measured  from  barbarism  downwards. 
Considering  barbarism  as  zero^  we  must  measure 
oiF  the  degrees  of  his  degradation  by  counting 
netherwards. 

WHAT  IS  EDUCATION? 

A  MAN  is  not  educated  because  he  buys  a  book ; 
he  is  not  educated  because  he  reads  a  book, 
though  it  should  be  the  very  best  book  that  ever 
was  written,  and  should  enumerate  and  unfold  all 
the  laws  of  God.  He  only  is  educated  who  prac- 
tises according  to  the  laws  of  God. 


THOUGHTS.  45 

UNIVERSAL   EDUCATION. 

IN  a  government  like  ours,  each  individual  must 
think  of  the  Avelfare  of  the  state,  as  well  as  of 
the  welfare  of  his  own  family,  and  therefore  of  the 
children  of  others  as  well  as  his  own.  It  becomes, 
then,  a  momentous  question  whether  the  children  in 
our  schools  are  educated  in  reference  to  themselves 
and  their  private  interests  only,  or  with  a  regard  to 
the  great  social  duties  and  prerogatives  that  await 
them  in  after  life.  Are  they  so  educated  that  when 
they  grow  up  they  will  make  better  Christians,  or 
only  grander  savages?  for,  however  loftily  the  in- 
tellect of  man  may  have  been  gifted,  however  skil- 
fully it  may  have  been  trained,  if  it  be  not  guided 
by  a  sense  of  justice,  a  love  of  mankind,  and  a 
devotion  to  duty,  its  possessor  is  only  a  more  splen- 
did, as  he  is  a  more  dangerous  barbarian. 

PURITY  OF  CHILDHOOD. 

WHATEVER  views  we  may  take  of  the  nature 
of  children,  —  and  the  controverted  questions 
on  this  subject  we  studiously  avoid,  —  it  is  still 
certain  that  they  are  born  into  a  world  whose  prac- 
tices are  less  upright  and  pure  than  their  sentiments. 
The  conscience  of  society  is  far  less  tremblingly 
alive  to  injustice  and  impurity  than  the  consciences 


46  THOUGHTS. 

of  children.  As  the  moral  tone  of  the  community 
now  is,  children  have  not  a  fair  chance  to  become 
moral  men.  Their  better  instincts  are  overborne  by 
the  force  of  the  examples  they  witness,  and  what- 
ever upward  tendencies  they  have  towards  right  and 
truth  are  drawn  downwards  by  the  powerful  gravi- 
tation of  vicious  manners  and  customs. 

POWER   OVER  EVIL  MEN: 

ALL  the  powers  of  the  mightiest  nation  can 
never  prevent  bad  men  from  doing  wrong. 
The  only  way  to  diminish  the  amount  of  wrong  in 
the  world  is  to  diminish  the  number  of  bad  men. 
I  conclude,  therefore,  that  every  philanthropic  and 
Christian  view  which  we  can  take  of  the  question, 
How  shall  our  educational  resources  be  distributed  ? 
points  to  a  distribution  of  them  which  shall  afford, 
as  nearly  as  possible,  an  equality  of  advantages 
for  all. 

GREATNESS  NOT  DEPENDENT   UPON  THE  SPHERE 
OF  ACTION. 

IT  matters  nothing  what  the  particular  duties  are 
to  which  the  individual  is  called  —  how  minute 
or  obscure  in  their  outward  form.  Greatness,  in 
God's  sight,  lies  not  in  the  extent  of  the  sphere 
that  is  filled,  or  of  the  efiect  which  is   produced, 


THOUGHTS.  47 

but  altogether  in  the  power  of  virtue  in  the  soul,  in 
the  energy  with  which  God's  will  is  chosen,  with 
which  trial  is  borne,  and  goodness  is  loved  and 
preserved. 

TO  BOYS. 

Do  not  trouble  the  birds.  Let  them  sing  and 
fly  without  fear  from  you.  Do  not  kill  them, 
do  not  catch  and  imprison  them.  Let  them  go 
abroad  in  all  the  joyousness  of  their  brief  sum- 
mer's life.  If  you  wish  for  something  to  do  in 
the  spring  days,  dig  a  hole  in  some  suitable  place 
by  the  road-side,  three  or  four  feet  across  and  a 
foot  and  a  half  deep  ;  tlirow  back  part  of  the  earth  ; 
then  go  into  the  fields  or  woods,  catch  a  wild  tree, 
the  prettiest  you  can  find,  and  fasten  its  roots  care- 
fully in  the  cage  that  you  have  made  for  them,  and 
your  children's  children,  or  the  poor  wayfaring 
man,  a  century  hence,  may  thank  you  for  the  shade 
which  you  have  provided.  Is  not  this  better  than 
catching  birds  ? 

READ   ALWAYS. 

RESOLVE  to  edge  in  a  little  reading  every  day, 
if  it  is  but  a  single  sentence.  If  you  gain 
fifteen  minutes  a  day,  it  will  make  itself  felt  at  the 
end  of  the  year. 


48  THOUGHTS. 

GREATXESS    OF  HEART. 

A  BOY'S  heart  is  not  like  his  vest  or  his  jacket^ 
which  would  split  open  if  he  should  grow  into 
a  man  in  five  minutes.  The  heart  may  be  very 
small,  —  so  small  as  only  to  embrace  one's  self  in 
its  thoughts  and  desires  ;  —  this  makes  a  very  mean, 
selfish  person.  The  heart  may  be  enlarged  so  as 
to  embrace  a  town  ; — this  makes  a  good  townsman. 
Or  it  may  take  in  one's  whole  nation  ;  —  this  makes 
a  patriot.  Or  it  may  take  in  all  mankind  ;  —  this 
makes  a  philanthropist.  Or  it  may  embrace  in  its 
affections  the  whole  universe  and  the  great  Creator 
of  it ;  —  this  makes  one  godlike.  And  all  the  way, 
let  me  tell  you,  from  the  narrowest  limit  to  the 
vastest  expansion,  its  happiness  will  be  in  propor- 
tion to  its  enlargement. 

THE  DOOR   TO   THE  TEMPLE. 

THE  creation  is  a  museum,  all  full,  and  crowded 
with  wonders  and  beauties  and  glories.  One 
door,  and  one  only,  is  open,  by  which  you  can  enter 
this  magnificent  temple.  It  is  the  door  of  Knowl- 
edge. The  learned  laborer,  the  learned  peasant,  or 
slave,  is  ever  made  welcome  at  this  door,  while  the 
ignorant,  though  kings,  are  shut  out. 


THOUGHTS.  49 

"  WITHOUT   GOD   IX   THE    WOULD." 

THERE  is  no  other  conceivable  privation  to  be 
compared  with  an  ignorance  of  our  Creator. 
If  a  man  be  blind,  he  but  loses  the  outward  light. 
If  a  man  be  deaf,  he  but  loses  music  and  the  sweet 
converse  of  friends.  If  a  man  be  bereaved  of  com- 
panions, and  the  nearest  and  dearest  kindred  are 
plucked  from  his  bosom,  —  if  he  be  persecuted  and 
imprisoned,  and  torn  limb  from  limb,  by  the  hatred 
and  malice  of  men,  —  he  is  only  beneath  a  temporary 
cloud,  which  will  pass  away  like  the  vapor  of  the 
morning.  But  if  he  is  "without  God,"  he  is  a 
wanderer  and  a  solitary  in  the  universe,  with  no 
haven  or  hope  before  him  when  beaten  upon  by  the 
storms  of  fate  ;  with  no  home  or  sanctuary  to  flee 
to,  though  all  the  spirits  of  darkness  should  have 
made  him  their  victim. 

DUTY  A  HAPPIXESS. 

IN  vain  do  they  talk  of  happiness  who  never 
subdued  an  impulse  in  obedience  to  a  principle. 
He  who  never  sacrificed  a  present  to  a  future  good, 
or  a  personal  to  a  general  one,  can  speak  of  happi- 
ness only  as  the  blind  do  of  colors. 


50  THOUGUTS. 

THE  MOST  IMPOBTAXT  THIXGS   THE  MOST 
COMMOX. 

A  BENEFICENT  Providence  has  ordained  that 
what  is  most  essential  may  be  most  easily 
acquired.  Health  is  more  essential  than  astron- 
omy, and  therefore  its  laws  are  more  easily  learned. 
Common  sense  is  better  than  genius,  and  hence  its 
bestowment  is  more  universal.  Society  might  sub- 
sist and  enjoy  a  good  degree  of  happiness  without 
any  knowledge  of  the  learned  languages,  or  of  the 
higher  mathematics,  but  it  cannot  endure,  in  any 
tolerable  state,  without  honesty  ;  and  therefore  hon- 
esty may  be  more  cheaply  and  universally  incul- 
cated than  Latin  or  Greek  or  the  differential 
calculus.  In  the  benign  order  of  the  creation, 
necessities  are  first  provided  for,  —  embellish- 
ments, superfluities,  luxuries,  afterwards,  if  at  all. 

IXTELLECT. 

THE  intellect  is  the  light  of  the  mind.  The 
appetites,  impulses,  affections,  sentiments,  — 
whatever  we  please  to  call  them,  —  have  their 
otjects  of  desire  ;  but  they  know  not  how  to  obtain 
them.  The  intellect  points  out  or  devises  the 
means  by  which  their  ends  can  be  reached.  They 
inform  the  intellect  what  they  want ;  the  intellect 


THOUGHTS.  51 

discerns  and  adopts  the  measures  necessary  to 
their  gratification.  The  intellect  performs  the 
oflice  of  a  pilot ;  but  what  shall  become  of  the  vessel 
and  its  treasures,  if  the  pilot  is  blind? 

PLEASURES   OF  KNOWLEDGE. 

AN  attempt  to  describe  the  uses,  pleasures, 
blessings  of  knowledge,  would  be  like  an 
attempt  to  clasp  the  huge  earth  around  in  our 
arms  ;  —  we  should  fail,  not  because  there  is  no 
earth,  but  because  of  its  vastness.  When  the 
Pennsylvania  Dutchman  said  that  all  he  wanted 
his  boys  to  know  was,  how  to  count  a  hundred 
dollars  and  to  row  a  boat  to  New  Orleans,  he  did 
not  think  that  if  others  had  not  known  vastly  more 
than  this,  there  would  have  been  no  dollars  to 
count,  nor  New  Orleans  to  go  to. 

THE   VALUE  OF  KNOWLEDGE. 

WHEN  a  ship  has  been  driven  by  adverse 
winds  and  currents  until  her  path  is  wound 
into  a  coil,  and  crossed  and  tangled  in  inextricable 
confusion,  it  is  knowledge  alone  which  can  lift  the 
sextant  to  the  skies,  and  tell,  within  a  hand-breadth, 
on  what  spot  in  the  waste  of  waters,  in  what  direc- 


52  THOUGHTS. 

tion,    and    how    far    from    home,    the    wanderer 
may  be. 

SKILLED  LABOR. 

AN  ancient  historian  relates  that  the  mere  labor 
of  raising  the  stones  which  compose  the  great 
pyramid  of  Egypt,  and  fastening  them  in  their 
proper  places,  occupied  one  hundred  thousand  men 
for  twenty  years ;  and  this  number  was  exclusive 
of  those  who  were  employed  in  hewing  and  trans- 
porting the  materials.  It  has  been  calculated 
that  the  same  labor  might  be  performed  by  thirty- 
six  thousand  men  using  the  steam-engines  of  Eng- 
land in  a  single  day ;  that  is,  by  about  one  third 
of  the  number  of  men  in  less  than  one  six-thou- 
sandth part  of  the  time.  It  is  true  that  it  would 
cost  something  to  build  the  engines,  but  their  value 
would  hardly  be  lessened  by  a  single  day's  work. 

THE  IXFINITE  AND   THE  FINITE. 

GOD  can  speak  whatever  he  will  into  existence, 
but  man  must  work  into  existence  whatever 
good  he  desires.  And  hence  the  necessity,  not 
merely  of  a  general  aim  or  resolve  to  effect  a  noble 
object,  but  of  learning  or  devising  the  means  by 
which  it  can  be  attained. 


THOUGHTS.  63 

HUM  Ay  NATURE  A   PROBLEM. 

AMONG  all  the  works  of  God,  there  is  nothing 
so  heterogeneous  and  self-contradictory  as  the 
nature  of  man.  That  figment  of  the  ancients  was 
an  inadequate,  though  a  just  representation  even 
of  jx  good  man,  Avhich  likened  him  to  a  charioteer 
drawn  by  steeds,  one  of  whom  had  wings  by  which 
he  would  soar  to  heaven,  while  the  weight  of  his 
fellow  held  him  to  the  earth.  Under  all  the  influ- 
ences which  human  art,  and  nature,  and  Provi- 
dence shed  around  us,  it  is  the  work  of  education 
to  reduce  these  conflicting  powers  to  harmonious 
action.  Let  us  not  deny  that,  with  the  aids  which 
Heaven  vouchsafes  to  all  who  seek  for  them,  the 
appetites  and  propensities  of  the  young  can  be 
subjected  to  the  restraints  of  reason  and  con- 
science. 

PARENTAL  INFLUENCE. 

DR.  FRANKLIN  attributed  much  of  his  prac- 
tical turn  of  mind  —  which  w^as  the  salient 
point  of  his  immortality  —  to  the  fact  that  his 
father,  in  his  conversations  before  the  family, 
always  discussed  some  useful  subject,  or  developed 
some  just  principle  of  individual  or  social  action, 


54  THOUGHTS. 

instead  of  talking  forever  about  trout-catching  or 
grouse-shooting,  about  dogs,  dinners,  dice,  or 
trumps. 

LANGUAGE. 

SOME  languages  are  musical  in  themselves,  so 
that  it  is  pleasant  to  hear  any  one  read  or  con- 
verse in  them,  even  though  we  do  not  understand 
a  word  that  we  hear.  Such  is  the  Italian.  Oth- 
ers are  full  of  growling,  snarling,  hissing  sounds, 
as  though  wild  beasts  and  serpents  had  first  taught 
the  people  to  speak.  Such,  to  a  painful  extent,  are 
those  of  the  Saxon  stock,  from  which  the  greater 
part  of  our  own  i^  derived.  A  few  poets,  how- 
ever, by  their  wonderful  powers  of  culling  and 
collocating,  have  been  able  to  tune  the  jaggy 
hoarseness  of  the  English  throat,  horrid  with 
croak  and  gutturalness,  into  the  sweet  utterance  of 
many  a  page  of  gently-flowing  verse,  musical  with 
swell  and  cadence  of  melodious  sounds.  When  the 
language  is  unmusical,  the  only  remaining  beauty 
with  which  we  can  invest  it  is  that  of  a  distinct 
articulation.  Nothing  is  more  painful  to  a  culti- 
vated and  delicate  ear,  than  the  jargon  which  has 
the  harshness  of  the  adult's  voice,  with  the  inar- 
ticulateness of  the  infant's. 


THOUGHTS.  55 

LEARN  OF  THE  BIRDS. 

IN  learning  to  read,  we  might  derive  a  lesson 
from  the  mocking-birds.  If,  in  learning  to 
sing  the  songs  of  other  birds,  they  fall  into  a  mis- 
take, in  a  moment  the  gush  of  sound  is  checked, 
and  they  go  back,  again  and  again  if  necessary, 
until  they  catch  and  can  repeat  —  and  verbatim  et 
literatim  —  the  notes  they  aspire  to  imitate.  They 
also  practise  long  and  faithfully,  and  they  have 
wisdom  enough  to  do  this  when  they  are  young. 
Speaking  of  the  ferruginous  mocking-bird,  Audu- 
bon says,  "  It  sings  well.  The  young  begin 
their  musical  studies  in  autumn,  re  pleating  pas- 
sages with  as  much  zeal  as  ev^er  did  Paganini.  It 
scarcely  possesses  the  faculty  of  imitation,  but  is 
a  steady  performer.^'  These  birds  begin  their 
studies  young,  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  in  which 
they  are  hatched,  and  before  the  silken  and  flexible 
fibres  of  their  throats  toughen  into  whalebone. 
They  repeat,  innumerable  times,  what  they  hear, 
and  the  development  of  their  "full  powers  of 
song  "  is  not  reached  until  after  long  application. 

IMPORTANCE  OF  HEALTH. 

SOUNDNESS  of   heahh  is  preliminary  to   the 
highest   success    in    any   pursuit.      In    every 


56  THOUGHTS. 

industrial  avocation  it  is  an  indispensable  element, 
and  the  highest  intellectual  eminence  can  never  be 
reached  without  it.  It  exerts  a  powerful  influence 
over  feelings,  temper,  and  disposition,  and  through 
these  upon  moral  character.  Yet,  incredible  as  it 
may  seem,  the  means  of  acquiring  vigor,  endur- 
ance, quickness,  have  been  sought  for,  not  by  the 
clergyman,  the  lawyer,  the  artist,  the  cultivator  of 
letters,  the  mother,  but  by  the  wrestler,  the  buf- 
foon, the  runner,  the  opera-dancer.  There  are  ten 
professors  of  pugilism  in  our  community  to  one  of 
physical  education  in  our  seminaries  of  learning. 

MAX  IS  FEARFULLY  AND    WOXDERFULLT  MADE. 

WITH  what  a  variety  of  sounds  does  the  nerve 
of  hearing,  —  a  little  soft  cord,  two  inches 
long,  and  not  larger  than  a  straw  —  make  us 
acquainted  !  No  arithmetic  can  compute  the  num- 
ber of  sounds  which  come  from  the  hum  or  chirp 
of  insects,  from  the  song  of  birds,  from  the  occu- 
pations, the  speech,  or  the  music  of  men,  from  the 
voices  of  animals,  from  trees  and  streams,  from 
the  ocean  and  the  air,  —  and  yet  with  what  facility 
and  distinctness  does  this  bit  of  nervous  matter 
communicate  the  whole  to  the  mind,  so  that  we 
can  readily  assort  or  unravel  these  sounds,  and  refer 


THOUGHTS.  57 

each   to   its   true    organ ;    and   all  this  is   effected 
without  any  artificial  change  of  stops  or  keys. 

THE  MORAL  FACULTIES   SUPREME. 

AS  indications  of  the  supremacy  of  the  moral 
faculties,  and  as  a  measure  of  their  success, 
we  use  the  terms  Civilization  and  Christianity. 
But  these  terms  are  most  vaguely  used.  If  sub- 
jected to  the  least  rigorous  definition,  they  can 
import  nothing  less  than  a  knowledge  of  the  laws 
of  God.,  and  an  obedience  to  them.  It  matters  not, 
in  any  good  sense,  what  men  profess  ;  it  matters 
not  what  books,  or  institutions,  or  revelations  they 
may  have  inherited ;  the  same  question  forever 
recurs  ;  Do  they  know  the  loill  of  God,  and  do  they 
obey  it  ?  Judged  by  the  standard  of  knowledge  and 
obedience,  how  far  is  the  best  nation  in  the  world, 
at  the  present  time,  authorized  to  call  itself  civil- 
ized or  Christian? 

CIVILIZATION. 

IT  is  in  the  sphere  of  the  intellect  alone  that 
men  are  becoming  really  civilized.  Here  they 
have  learned  some  of  the  laws  of  God,  as  expressed 
in  nature,  and  they  do  obey  them.  And  how 
magnificent  are  the  rewards  !     How  the  crude  sub- 


58  THOUGHTS. 

stances  of  nature  are  changed  into  comfort,  beauty, 
and  blessedness  !  .  .  .  From  the  first  and  few  rudi- 
mentary lessons  which  the  intellect  has  learned,  and 
learned  to  practise  too,  from  the  great  volume  of 
God's  will,  has  proceeded  this  vast-  multiplication 
of  our  comforts,  embellishments,  and  means  of 
progress,  just  as  naturally  as  a  bird  comes  out  of 
an  egg. 

MORAL   GROWTH. 

WHY  should  the  student  be  taught  that,  in 
dynamics,  the  power  must  be  greater  than 
the  inertia,  and  in  statics,  that  the  resistance  must 
be  equal  to  the  pressure  ;  and  yet  not  be  taught,  so 
as  to  feel  a  far  livelier  consciousness  of  its  truth, 
that  the  quantum  of  energy  must  exceed  the  maxi- 
mum of  obstacle,  or  no  heroic  enterprise  will  ever 
be  achieved,  and  that  moral  principle  must  grow  as 
temptation  grows,  or  we  are  swept  to  ruin? 

THE  REMEDY  FOR  EVIL. 

THE  more  I  see  of  our  present  civilization,  and 
of  the  only  remedies  for  its  evils,  the  more  I 
dread  intellectual  eminence,  when  separated  from 
virtue.  AVe  are  in  a  sick  world,  for  whose  mala- 
dies the  knowledge  of  truth,  and  obedience  to  it,  are 
the  only  healing. 


THOUGHTS.  69 

STUDY  OF  SCIEXCE. 

A  SCIENCE  approximates  perfection  only  as 
it  more  nearly  exhausts  all  the  truths  which 
belong  to  that  science  in  the  constitution  of  things. 
No  science  wil^be  perfect  until  all  the  truths  which 
God  has  wrought  with  the  subject  of  it  are  re- 
vciiled. 

PRIXCIPLES  OF  SCIEXCE. 

WE  know  not  how  many  sciences  are  yet  to  be 
discovered  whose  seminal  principle  still  re- 
mains unknown.  But  from  the  fact  that  new 
sciences  are  constantly  added  to  the  radiant  circle 
of  knowledge,  and  that  the  sciences  already  culti- 
vated are  daily  enriched  by  the  addition  of  new 
truths,  we  seem  to  be  pre-assured  of  the  existence 
of  an  infinite  number  of  truths  which  still  await 
the  working  power  of  human  genius.  To  use  an 
astronomical  illustration,  I  would  say,  that  new 
constellations  of  truth  are  daily  discovered  in  the 
firmament  of  knowledge,  and  new  stars  are  daily 
shining  forth  in  each  constellation. 


W 


TRUTHS  OF  SCIEXCE. 

lAT  an  inconceivable  number  of  truths  is 
comprised   in   the    science    of  zoology,  em- 


60  THOUGHTS. 

bracing  the  structure,  instincts,  habits,  and  races 
of  animals,  from  the  insect  that  lives  but  an  hour 
in  the  summer's  warmth,  to  the  eagle  of  a  century ; 
from  the  animalcule,  undiscernible  by  the  naked 
eye,  to  the  lion,  the  leviathan,  or  the  "  half-reason- 
ing elephant." 

MENTAL  SCIENCE. 

ALL  the  sciences,  as  they  relate  to  matter  and 
time,  have  the  relative  meagreness  and  paucity 
of  matter  and  time  ;  while  the  sciences  which  be- 
long to  the  spirit  partake  of  the  number  and  com- 
plex relations  of  that  infinitude  to  which  spirit 
belongs.  Such  are  the  mathematical  sciences,  ac- 
cording to  whose  diagrams  and  formulae  the  uni- 
verse seems  to  have  been  projected ;  for,  so  far  as 
we  yet  know,  all  magnitudes  are  in  precise  accord- 
ance with  mathematical  proportions  ;  the  substances 
of  chemistry  unite  together  in  aliquot  parts  ;  all 
sounds,  from  the  roar  of  the  thunder-cloud  to  the 
tones  and  semitones  of  the  most  delicate  instru- 
ment ;  light,  heat,  electricity,  gravitation,  motion,  — 
are  inwardly  governed  by  mathematical  laws ;  all 
planets  and  suns  were  weighed  in  their  balance,  as 
the  void  spaces  between  them  were  measured  by 
their  line. 


THOUGHTS.  61 

CLASSES  OF  TRUTHS. 

SO  multifarious  are  the  diiFerent  classes  of  truths, 
and  so  multitudinous  the  truths  in  each  class, 
that  it  may  be  uudoubtingly  affirmed  that  no  man 
has  yet  lived  who  could  so  much  as  name  all  the 
different  classes  and  subdivisions  of  truths,  and  far 
less  any  one,  who  was  acquainted  with  all  the  truths 
belonging  to  any  one  class.  What  wonderful  extent, 
what  amazing  variety,  what  collective  magnifi- 
cence !  And  if  such  be  the  number  of  truths  per- 
taining to  this  tiny  ball  of  earth,  how  must  it  be 
in  the  incomprehensible  immensity ! 

MULTITUDE   OF  TRUTHS. 

SURELY  the  Creator  is  not  infinite  only,  but 
an  Infinity  of  infinities.  An  earth  full,  a  sky 
full,  a  heaven  full  of  truths  are  around  us  and  be- 
fore us,  upon  the  extreme  margin  of  which  we  are 
but  just  entering.  How  can  such  a  world  produce 
a  do^^matizer  or  a  h\":oi ! 

ADVAXTAGE  OF  KNOWLEDGE. 

A  TON  of  coal,  by  means  of  a  locomotive,  will 
transport  as  great  a  weight  upon  a  railroad,  in 
a  day,  as  a  man  could  carry  on  his  back  in  a  hun- 
dred years.  This  leaves  ninety-nine  years  three 
hundred  and  sixty-four  days  in  which  to  do  other 


b2  THOUGHTS. 

things ;  and  in  these  other  things  we  have  learned 
to  gain  time  in  an  equal  ratio. 

LA  TVS  OF  THE  SOUL. 

I  HAVE  endeavored  to  show,  in  some  slight 
degree,  what  benefits  knowledge  has  conferred 
by  developing  and  appropriating  to  human  uses  the 
powers  which  are  inherent  in  matter  ;  but  all  this  is 
only  a  faint  type,  an  imperfect  emblem,  of  the  bless- 
ings which  will  be  conferred  by  a  knowledge  of  the 
higher  order  of  powers  and  laws  which  are  inherent 
in  the  soul  of  man. 

POWERS   OF   THE  MIXD. 

IT  is  my  design  to  show  that  the  world  has  lost 
even  more  by  not  understanding  the  powers  and 
laws  of  the  mind  than  was  lost  by  an  ignorance  of 
the  powers  and  laws  of  matter,  and  that  there  are 
obvious  and  practical  uses  of  the  natural  powers  of 
the  mind  which  will  confer  far  greater  blessedness 
upon  the  race  than  has  been  conferred  by  a  knowl- 
edge of  astronomy,  navigation,  chemistry,  and  all 
the  radiant  circle  of  the  useful  sciences. 

ACTIVITIES  OF  KATURE. 

THE    human    soul,    like    the    material   universe 
around   us,    is    instinct    with    activities ;    and 
these  activities  are  all  obedient  to  an  innate  law 


THOUGHTS.  63 

impressed  upon  them  by  the  Creator.  Our  own 
consciousness  attests  that  in  our  own  souls  there 
is  a  spontaneity  of  action  —  action  uncaused  by 
any  precedent  volition  of  ours.  There  are  laws 
necessitating  and  determining  the  association  of 
ideas,  which  we  never  formed  and  can  never  annul. 
Tliere  are  out-darting  impulses,  which  aim  and 
strike  so  quickly  that  we  see  them  only  by  retro- 
spection. There  are  rending  and  upheaving  pas- 
sions, which,  ever  and  anon,  explode  from  some 
volcanic  stratum  in  our  own  nature,  deeper  down 
than  we  had  ever  known  before  ;  and  sometimes 
torrents  of  feeling  and  emotion,  as  resistless  and 
as  fathomless  as  ocean  tides.  More  or  less,  in  all 
sane  men,  these  activities  are  directly  or  indirectly 
under  the  control  of  the  will  ;  in  the  insane  we  see 
their  centrifugal  force  and  madness,  when  they  have 
revolted  from  the  will  and  cast  off  its  dominion. 

ACTION  OF   COXSCIENCE. 

ACOXSCIEXTIOUS  man,  subjected  by  ad- 
verse fortunes  to  some  vehement  temptation, 
which,  day  after  day,  seems  more  and  more  to  bend 
his  affrighted  and  struggling  conscience  to  its  pur- 
pose, until  with  strong  and  divine  resistance  he 
casts   off  the  clinging   viper,  experiences  a  change 


64  THOUGHTS. 

through  all  his  soul,  as  great  in  kind,  if  not  in 
degree,  as  can  ever  be  felt  in  passing  from  one 
world  to  another. 

LAWS  OF  MIND. 

ALL  the  mental  activities  are  governed  by  a 
law,  —  a  law  impressed  upon  them  by  the 
Creator, — just  as  much  as  the  energies  which 
reside  in  matter  are  governed  by  a  law.  Each 
faculty,  too,  in  the  spiritual  world,  has  its  own 
law,  just  as  each  class  of  substances  has  in  the 
material  world.  In  philosophical  strictness,  or, 
which  is  the  same  thing,  in  the  divine  contempla- 
tion, there  is  no  such  thing  as  chance.  A  philoso- 
pher uses  the  word  chance  not  to  denote  an  effect 
without  a  cause,  but  to  denote  an  effect  of  whose 
cause  he  is  ignorant.  Both  in  the  philosophical 
and  material  world  all  is  power  and  motion,  and 
wherever  there  is  power  or  motion  there  is  law 
to  govern  it. 

SPIRITUAL   COXniTIOXS. 

IN  the  economy  of  mind  it  is  necessary  to  know 
not  only  the  active  principle,  and  the  law  by 
which  it  acts,  but  also  the  spiritual  conditions  by 
which   its    waste   energies    can    be    reclaimed   and 


THOUGHTS.  65 

employed.  Circumstances  which  aatedate  birth,  the 
circumstances  into  which  we  are  born,  and  the 
education  and  training  we  receive,  constitute  these 
conditions ;  and,  obedient  to  their  sovereignty,  a 
savage  nation  may  be  elevated  into  Christians  ;  or, 
through  disobedience,  a  Christian  nation  may  be 
debased  into  savages. 

SOURCE   OF  SPIRITUAL  ERRORS. 

MEN  who  make  self,  instead  of  Deity,  the  centre 
of  action,  fall  into  spiritual  errors.  Now,  I 
believe  there  is  some  central  point,  like  that  on 
which  Copernicus  stood,  from  which  all  human 
studies  may  be  surveyed,  and  all  human  duties  in- 
vestigated, and  where  more  can  be  gained  by  the 
intuitions  of  an  hour  than  can  be  discovered  from 
a  false  point  of  view  by  the  labors  of  a  life.  In 
regard  to  conduct,  this  central  truth  is  announced  in 
the  golden  rule  —  to  do  unto  others  as  we  would 
that  they  should  do  unto  us ;  and  doubtless  the 
intellect  has  its  golden  rules  as  well  as  the  con- 
science. Yet  in  regard  to  both  intellect  and  con- 
science, how  often  do  false  systems  of  education, 
and  perverse  customs  and  institutions,  seize  upon 
the  mind  before  its  powers  of  reflection  are  devel- 
oped, and  remove  it  to  some  false  position  ! 
5 


66  THOUGHTS 


I 


VALUE  OF  TIME. 

SUPPOSE  all  children  residing  in  the  country, 
though  belonging  to  families  in  the  narrowest 
circumstances,  might,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  possess 
very  respectable  attainments  in  geology,  mineralogy, 
and  zoology,  and  know  a  great  deal  of  botany, 
entomology,  and  agricultural  chemistry,  without 
ever  abstracting  one  hour  from  their  customary 
labors,  or  from  the  course  of  common  studies 
which  they  now  pursue ;  but  only  by  using  the 
time  and  the  powers  which  are  now  wasted,  —  often 
worse  than  wasted.  The  only  conditions  to  be  per- 
formed for  the  attainment  of  such  results  are,  that 
their  parents,  older  associates  and  teachers,  shall  be 
so  full  of  these  kinds  of  knowledge  as  constantly 
to  exhale  them,  filling  the  air  with  their  fragrance, 
so  that  the  children  shall  breathe  them  in  as  they 
now  inhale  the  common  air. 

STUDY  OF  LANGUAGES. 

IN  the  acquisition  of  languages  by  direct  study, 
where  time  can  be  aiforded  for  the  purpose,  it 
is  found  that  several  languages,  belonging  to  the 
same  family,  —  as  the  Latin,  Italian,  and  Spanish, 
for  instance,  —  can  be  acquired  together,  almost  as 
easily   and   rapidly,   as    either  of  them  can  be  ac- 


THOUGHTS.  G7 

quired  separately,  and  with  far  less  chance  of  their 
being  lost  from  the  memory  by  disuse.  By  finding 
the  roots  in  the  parent  tongue,  and  by  tracing  the 
growth  from  these  roots  outward  into  different 
tongues,  as  it  were  genealogically,  it  is  found  that 
they  descend  and  spread  according  to  certain  organic 
laws  of  modification  and  growth.  It  is  found  that 
each  root  bears  copious  clusters  of  words,  and  that 
each  word  is  modified  according  to  the  genius  of 
the  language  to  wliich  it  belongs  ;  so  that,  when  we 
have  learned  the  signification  of  the  root  word,  in 
the  parent  tongue,  we  perceive  by  inspection  the 
meaning  of  the  derivative  in  the  atiJliated  tongue. 

ASSOCIATION-  OF  IDEAS. 

THE  law  of  the  association  of  ideas  is,  as  yet, 
as  far  from  accomplishing  those  beneficent 
ends  for  wiiich  the  Creator  implanted  it  in  the 
human  mind,  as  steam  was  on  the  day  when  the 
Marquis  of  Worcester  caught  the  idea  of  its  power, 
from  seeing  it  throw  off  the  lid  of  a  tea-kettle,  and 
before  Savery,  Newcomen,  Watt,  and  Fulton  made 
it  dig  coal,  weave  cloth,  grind  corn,  and  bring  all 
nations  and  continents  into  one  small  neighbor- 
hood. 


68  THOUGHTS. 

rO TVER   OF  ELOQ UEXCE. 

WHATEVER  we  may  see,  or  hear,  or  read, 
that  faculty  of  our  minds,  which,  from 
nature,  education,  or  habit,  is  the  strongest,  seizes 
and  expatiates  upon  the  parts  most  congenial  to 
itself.  When  an  audience  of  a  thousand  men,  of 
diverse  tastes,  of  hostile  creeds,  and  of  conflicting 
desires,  are,  as  it  were,  uplifted  from  the  earth  by 
the  might  and  majesty  of  eloquence,  and  are  wafted 
onward  together  through  the  clear,  upper  heaven 
of  Sublime  and  beautiful  thoughts,  —  their  minds 
all  glowing  with  the  same  intellectual  delights, 
their  hearts  all  ravished  by  the  same  moral  en- 
chantments, their  pulses  all  responsively  beating  to 
the  same  harmonious  music,  —  it  is  nothing  but  the 
breaking  away  of  each  mind,  for  the  time  being, 
from  the  fastenings  of  those  habitual  associations, 
which  at  other  times  bind  it  to  its  monotonous, 
mill-horse  circle  of  thought. 

PHILOSOPHY  OF  IXSAXITT. 

PROBABLY  most,  if  not  all  of  those  whom  we 
call  demoniacs,  are  men  some  one  or  more  of 
whose  passions  have,  by  an  indefinite  number  of 
repetitions,  risen  into  resistless  strength ;  until, 
overmastering  every  other  power,  they  bind  their 


THOUGHTS.  69 

victim  to  the  fiery  car  of  madness,  and  bear  him 
away  into  the  dark  reahns  of  insanity,  like  that 
reinless  and  untamed  steed  that  fled  with  Mazeppa 
into  the  wilderness. 

ERROR  COXTAGIOUS. 

THE  mischief  of  giving  a  child  an  erroneous 
principle  of  action,  or  habit  of  association,  is 
not  to  be  measured  by  taking  the  dimensions  of  that 
one  error.  Xo  error  is  infused  into  the  young 
mind,  to  lie  there  dormant,  or  to  be  reproduced 
only  when  the  subject  of  thought  or  action  recurs 
to  which  the  error  belongs  ;  but  the  error  becomes 
a  model  or  archetype,  after  whose  likeness  the  ac- 
tive powers  of  the  mind  create  a  thousand  other 
errors.  Some  leading  idea  in  our  minds  being  the 
mould  in  which  our  new  views  are  cast,  it  becomes 
of  inconceivable  importance  what  those  patterns  or 
formative  ideas  are. 

TEACHIXGS  OF  HISTORY. 

AS  yet  the  instinct  of  imitation  seems  to  have 
produced  nearly  as  much  evil  as  good ; 
because  the  examples  given  by  the  aged  to  the 
young,  by  men  who  occupy  the  high  places  in 
society  to  their  social  inferiors,  and  by   the  great 


70  THOUGHTS. 

teacher,  History,  to  the  great  school.  Posterity, 
have  been  oftener  evil  than  good.  They  who  set 
an  example  make  a  highway.  Others  follow  the 
example,  because  it  is  easier  to  travel  on  a  high- 
way than  over  untrodden  grounds.  As  the  mind 
becomes  habituated  to  travel  in  the  great  thorough- 
fares which  example  makes,  it  seems  even  unnatural 
to  leave  them.  The  daughter,  taught  by  example  to 
expend  her  whole  capacities  of  admiration  on  dress, 
equipage,  and  manners,  when  she  arrives  at  a  mar- 
riageable age,  will  probably  worship  the  Nash  or 
Brummel  of  her  caste,  though  the  ten  command- 
ments lie  in  fragments  about  him. 

TBE  LAW  OF  CAUSE  AND  EFFECT. 

THERE  is  an  inherent  power  or  law  of  the 
mind  which  we  are  but  just  beginning  to  learn 
how  to  use,  —  I  mean  the  power  or  law  which 
makes  us  ask  the  cause  of  whatever  we  see.  Every 
event  in  this  world  is  the  effect  of  some  precedent 
cause,  and  also  the  cause  of  some  subsequent  effect. 
Every  event  is  linked,  at  one  end,  to  a  chain  reach- 
ing forward  into  eternity.  Myriads  of  the  chains 
of  causes  and  effects  coexist.  They  lie,  as  it  were, 
side  by  side,  and  layer  upon  layer,  —  sometimes 
running   on   parallel   to   each   other,  sometimes   a 


THOUGHTS.  71 

thousand  causes  converging  to  one  event,  and  again, 
one  event  diverging  or  branching  out  into  a  thou- 
sand others.  In  each  case,  if  each  cause  were 
different,  the  effect  would  be  different. 


A" 


SUPERSTITION  NATURAL. 

MONG  a  savage  people,  a  pestilence  chances 
1\.  to  be  stayed,  after  human  sacrifices ;  and 
hence,  whenever  a  pestilence  rages,  the  anger  of 
the  gods  must  be  appeased  by  human  sacrifices 
again.  Now,  the  authors  of  all  these  follies  and 
cruelties  were  instinctively  right  in  believing  a 
cause  to  exist  for  each  event.  To  this  the  law  of 
their  minds  compelled  them.  But  they  were  all 
wrong  in  their  designation  of  the  antecedent,  casual 
fact.  The  mind,  by  its  involuntary  action,  gener- 
alized these  fortuitous  connections  into  universal 
laws  ;  and  what  floods,  ocean-deep,  of  the  direful 
miseries  of  superstition  and  barbarity,  have,  in 
consequence  of  these  errors,  been  poured  upon  the 
world ! 

CAUSE   AND  EFFECT. 

11IIR0UGH  the  want  of  a  clear  perception  and 
.  strong  conviction  of  the  indissoluble  bond  be- 
tween causes  and  effects,  —  that  is,  how  the  future 
grows  out  of  the  present,  —  we  are  prone  to  seek 


72  THOUGHTS. 

immediate  pleasure  or  good,  however  small,  rather 
than  remote  pleasure  or  good,  however  vast. 

REFLECTION-—  PERCEPTION. 

AS  it  regards  the  intellectual  man,  nothing  en- 
larges or  diminishes  his  power  and  useful- 
ness more  than  the  predominance  of  the  reflective 
over  the  perceptive  faculties,  or  that  of  the  percep- 
tive over  the  reflective.  The  reflective  man  is 
immeasurably  superior  to  the  perceptive  one.  His 
analysis  is  always  deeper,  so  that  he  not  only  shows 
his  antagonist  to  have  been  wrong,  but  shallow  as 
well  as  wrong.  I  would  not  say  a  word  against 
the  cultivation  of  the  perceptive  powers  ;  but  it  is 
most  desirable  that  the  reflective  ones  should  main- 
tain the  ascendency.  The  true  ofiice  of  the  former 
is  to  supply  materials  for  the  latter  to  work  upon. 

INFLUENCES   OF  CITY  AND    COUNTRY. 

IN  the  city,  owing  to  the  endless  variety  of  inter- 
esting objects  which  are  presented  to  the  senses, 
the  perceptive  faculties  are  more  cultivated  ;  in  the 
country,  the  reflective  or  reasoning.  It  has  been 
said,  a  thousand  times,  that  if  the  health  and  ro- 
bustness of  the  country  were  not  regularly  trans- 
ferred into  the  city,  the  population  of   the   latter 


THOUGHTS.  73 

would  soon  die  out.  The  remark  would  be  as 
true  in  regard  to  intellect  and  power  as  to  physical 
stamina. 

TEMPERA  ME  NT. 

WHETHER  a  man  has  one  temperament  or 
another,  is  described  all  over  him,  —  in  his 
hair,  in  his  eyes,  in  his  complexion,  in  the  style  of 
his  features,  and  in  the  firmness  or  sponginess  of 
his  flesh.  I  say,  therefore,  the  proofs  of  a  man's 
temperament  are  written  all  over  him.  He  cannot 
help  himself,  any  more  than  a  horse  can  help  show- 
ing how  old  he  is  by  his  teeth,  or  an  ox  by  his 
horns,  or  a  rattlesnake  by  his  rattles.  We  know, 
too,  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  natural  lan- 
guage, which  is  more  truthful  and  unambiguous 
than  the  English  language,  or  any  other  that  was 
ever  invented.  This  natural  language  consists  in 
the  peculiar  tones  of  the  voice,  in  the  expression 
of  the  countenance,  and  in  the  gestures,  the  air  and 
carriage,  of  a  man,  —  all  betokening  the  spirit 
within.  These  outward  signs  declare  what  thoughts 
and  emotions  have  made  up  the  inward  history  of 
our  lives  ;  they  declare  what  thoughts  and  emotions 
we  are  now  indulging,  and  what,  probably,  we  shall 
continue  to  indulge. 


74  THOUGHTS. 

KATUEAL  LANGUAGE. 

COMMON  emotions,  no  less  than  tragic  pas- 
sions, have  their  proofs,  although  it  is  not 
every  man  to  whom  these  proofs  are  legible.  But 
it  no  more  follows  that  these  proofs  do  not  exist, 
because  all  men  are  not  able  to  recognize  them, 
than  it  does  that  there  are  not  different  species  in 
botany  or  zoology,  because  all  men  are  not  able  to 
distinguish  one  species  from  another.  The  common 
observer  knows  only  si  few  different  kinds  of  fishes. 
But  had  any  dried  bone,  belonging  to  any  variety 
in  the  whole  class  of  mammalia,  been  shown  to 
Cuvier,  from  the  inspection  of  that  bone  he  could 
construct  the  whole  animal  to  which  it  belonged, 
and  tell  whether  it  lived  upon  flesh  or  grass.  Let 
a  single,  solitary  scale  of  a  fish  be  shown  to  Agas- 
siz,  and  he  will  make  a  picture  of  the  whole  fish  to 
which  the  scale  originally  belonged.  By  tokens 
and  testimonies  still  more  numerous,  he  who  under- 
stands the  laws  of  temperament,  and  can  read  the 
natural  language  of  man,  can  decipher  their  origi- 
nal tendencies,  and  learn,  to  a  great  extent,  their 
present  character 


THOUGHTS.  75 

XA  TUBE' S  AD  VEll  TISEMEXTS. 

BY  the  temperament,  which  indicates  the  degree 
of  activity  ;  by  the  natural  Language,  which  is 
a  hundred  fold  polygraph ;  and  by  the  size  of  the 
organ,  which  is  one  of  the  measures  of  power, 
every  man  advertises  what  he  is  ;  and  unlike  com- 
mon advertisements,  liis  are  true,  for  the  hand  of 
nature  has  written  them. 

PUNISHMENT  SELF-IXFLICTED. 

BY  the  laws  of  society,  penalties  for  the  commis- 
sion of  crime  are  denounced  upon  our  outward 
condition,  —  upon  our  property,  life,  reputation, 
liberty.  By  the  law  of  God  working  in  the  soul, 
guilt  revolutionizes  the  motions  of  the  soul  itself. 
The  evils  which  society  denounces  may  happen  or 
they  may  not  happen ;  for  the  infliction  depends 
upon  the  vigilance  of  the  police,  the  incorruptibility 
of  magistrates,  and  the  power  of  the  executive 
arm.  What  God  denounces,  must  come,  for  his 
laws  are  self-executing ;  nor  speed  nor  midnight 
can  save  us  from  their  vengeance.  Yet  for  ages, 
moralists  and  divines,  the  guides  and  teachers  of 
mankind,  have  used  up  the  common  air  in  pro- 
claiming the  outward,  remote,  or  uncertain  conse- 
quences   of    criminality.      Even    now    the    moral 


76  THOUGHTS. 

instructions  of  the  school  and  family,  and  the  re- 
li«>-ious  exhortations  of  the  sacred  desk,  consist 
mainly  in  portraying  the  terrors  of  outward,  dis- 
tant retribution,  until  every  one  at  all  observant  of 
society  sees,  that  the  prevalent  notion  among  men 
is,  that  a  criminal,  so  far  as  this  world  is  concerned, 
remains  substantially  unharmed  while  his  crime 
remains  unknown.  The  ideas  of  perpetration  and 
of  instant  suffering  and  loss  are  sundered  and  sep- 
arated. The  ideas  of  detection  and  suffering  are 
associated  and  linked  together.  Hence,  so  far, 
children  and  men  are  educated  away  from  and  out 
of  the  great  truth,  that  the  main  evil  of  guilt  is  in- 
ternal and  instantaneous ;  that  by  an  inherent  law 
of  the  soul,  punishment  is  not  postponed  until  the 
guilty  act  is  discovered,  but  bursts  with  instant 
•wrath  upon  the  offender's  head,  as  soon  as  the 
offending  deed  is  done. 

GUILT  TRAXSFORMS. 

VOLUNTARY  guilt  changes  all  the"  involuntary 
operations  of  the  soul  itself.  It  dissolves  the 
coherence  of  former  associations,  and  recombines, 
on  a  new  principle,  every  idea  and  emotion  that 
rises  in  the  mind.  It  fills  the  imagination' \vith 
lying  interpreters,  and  sends  the  lightning  courses 


THOUGHTS.  77 

of  fear  up  and  down  through  every  avenue  of  feel- 
ing. Else  why  does  the  criminal,  who  can  prepare 
his  plans  with  so  much  sagacity  beforehand,  betray 
himself  so  like  an  idiot  afterwards  ?  Why  does  a 
culprit's  blood  congeal  if  a  leaf  rustles  ?  Does  he 
will  or  wish  that  it  should  congeal?  Why  hears 
he  perpetually  the  sound  of  pursuing  footsteps? 
Does  he  desire  to  hear  them?  In  the  midst  of  a 
happy  family,  why  does  the  simple  story  of  inno- 
cence avenged,  which  claims  unsought  rejoicings 
from  all  other  hearts,  pour  lava  through  his  own? 
The  will  has  no  agency  in  these  inflictions.  Nature 
begets  the  scorpions.  Her  laws  overcome  volition, 
and  mock  at  it. 

CAUSES   OF  ALIEXATIOX  BETWEEX  SCJEXCE  AXD 
ItELIGIOX. 

IN  every  instance  where  science  has  revealed  a 
new  truth  which  conflicted,  not  with  the  Bible, 
but  with  the  current  interpretations  of  the  Bible,  — 
instead  of  inquiring  whether  the  alleged  discoveries 
were  or  were  not  true,  many  clergymen  have  de- 
nounced it,  and  poured  vengeance  upon  its  sup- 
porters. Hence  a  disastrous  alienation  has  ensued 
between  science  and  religion ;  or  rather,  between 
the  disciples  of  science  and  the  ministers  of  religion  ; 


78  THOUGHTS. 

for  between  true  science  and  true  religion  there  can 
never  be  any  conflict.  As  all  truth  is  from  God,  it 
necessarily  follows  that  true  science  and  true  re- 
ligion can  never  be   at  variance.     The   works   of 

o 

God,  and  the  providence  of  God,  can  never  conflict 
with  any  revelation  from  God. 

HAltMOXT  OF  NATURE. 

THERE  is  an  inexorable  necessity  that  all  true 
religion  and  all  true  science  should  be  harmo- 
nious. There  can  never  be  a  discordant  tone  or 
undertone  between  them.  Hence  all  science,  rightly 
considered,  has  a  religious  aspect.  It  is  not  more 
fitted  to  delight  the  intellect  by  the  perfectness  of 
its  laws,  than  it  is  to  excite  veneration  for  its  Author, 
for  their  divine  justice,  wisdom,  and  beneficence. 
Indeed,  I  go  farther  than  this.  I  maintain  that  the 
constantly  recurring  revelations  of  science  are  a 
great  religious  desideratum  in  this  age  of  the 
world. 

MIRACLES 

I  KNOW  not  how  those  who  think  the  days  of 
miracles  have  gone  by,  can  expect  to  keep  up 
to  its  former  height  that  flow  of  vivid  religious 
emotions,  that  sennment  of  the  continued  presence 


THOUGHTS.  79 

and  agency  of  the  Deity,  Avliich  was  once  sustained 
by  the  constant  recurrence  of  real  or  supposed 
miracles,  over  the  whole  world  and  amongst  all 
nations,  in  any  other  way  than  by  supplying  their 
place,  as  far  as  it  can  be  done,  with  the  God-pro- 
claiming revelations  of  science.  Everybody  knows 
that,  since  the  general  prevalence  of  the  belief  that 
God  has  ceased  to  interfere  with  the  order  of  nature 
in  the  affairs  of  the  natural  world,  the  idea  of  His 
perpetual  presence  and  administration  has  gradu- 
ally receded  from  the  minds  of  men.  Is  it  not 
desirable  to  reinstate  this  idea  by  all  legitimate 
means?  and  do  not  all  discoveries  in  science  tend 
strongly  to  do  so,  by  giving  us  new  and  lively  ex- 
amples of  a  God  working  in  wisdom  and  beneficence 
all  around  us  and  within  us  ?  It  is  of  unspeakable 
importance,  then,  that  the  priests  of  religion  should 
be  scientific  men.  It  is  equally  important  that  the 
professors  of  science  should  be  religious  men.  Each 
cause  loses  its  right  arm  Avhen  separated  from  the 
other.  If  fraternized  in  spirit,  and  cooperating  in 
action,  science  would  kneel  with  religion  in  the 
church,  and  religion  would  share  with  science  the 
laurels  of  the  academy. 


80  THOUGHTS. 

n  ELI  G I  OX  OF  XATURE. 

WHEN  we  observe  the  needle  of  tlie  mariner, 
Avitliout  visible  organ,  or  sense,  or  faculty, 
pointiug  with  a  trembling  and  pious  fidelity  to  the 
unseen  pole,  and  guiding,  not  one  favored  people 
only,  but  all  nations,  at  all  times,  across  a  wilder- 
ness of  waters,  so  that  a  ship  sails  forth  from  one 
shore  and  strikes  the  narrowest  inlet  or  bay  on  the 
other  side  of  the  globe,  why  ought  we  not  to  be 
filled  with  an  awe  as  reverential  and  as  religious  as 
though  we  had  seen  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  and 
of  fire  by  night,  which  led  the  children  of  Israel  in 
their  journey  through  the  wilderness? 

SPIRITUAL    WRECKS. 

TFIERE  are  no  wrecks  of  things  so  precious  as 
those  which  lie  at  the  bottom  of  the  spiritual 
ocean.  The  serfs  of  Europe,  the  vassals  and  Pariahs 
of  Oriental  despotism,  the  barbarians  of  Africa,  have 
lived  and  died,  scarcely  leaving  any  more  trace 
behind  them  than  their  contemporary  swarms  of 
insects  in  the  marshes  of  the  Nile  or  the  Ganges. 

THE  TRUE   GREAT  MEX. 

THERE   has  been   an  order  of  men,  —  the  real 
magnates  of  the  earth,  the  mighty  priesthood 
of  truth,  the  more  than  prophets, —  the  producers^  — 


THOUGHTS.  81 

of  human  welfare,  who  have  come  forth  from  their 
deep  communion  with  nature,  as  Moses  came  down 
from  the  mount,  radiant  with  holy  light,  and  bear- 
ing in  their  hands  the  tablets  of  the  eternal  law. 
They  have  learned  some  words  of  that  language 
wherewith  Omnipotence  commands  the  universe ; 
and  when  they  utter  these  words,  whether  to  the 
flaming  sky,  or  to  the  cavern's  depth,  consenting 
nature  hears  and  obeys.  By  these  men  the  world 
has  been  taught  a  new  truth,  —  that  just  so  far  as 
we  imitate  God  in  his  knowledge  and  his  goodness, 
he  invests  us  with  his  power.  In  the  presence  of 
true  science  and  religion,  the  mighty  elements  with- 
out us,  and  the  mightier,  fiercer  elements  within, 
become  tractable  and  docile.  They  obey  the  voice 
of  wisdom  as  a  flock  obeys  the  voice  of  its  shepherd. 

RIPEXESS   OF  MEN. 

As  an  apple  is  not  in  any  proper  sense  an  apple 
until  it  is  ripe,  so  a  human  being  is  not  in 
any  proper  sense  a  human  being  until  he  is  edu- 
cated 

GOD'S  LAWS. 

WE   put  things  in  order;  God  does  the  rest. 
Lay  an  iron  bar  east  and  west,  —  it  is  not 
magnetized.     Lay  it  north  and   south,  and  it  is. 
6 


82  THOUGHTS. 

GRACE. 

GOD'S  Spirit,  the  Holy  Spirit  —  Grace,   a  laio 
by  which   when  we   do   certain   things,   God 
does  certain  other  things. 

IF  man  moves  in  harmony  with  the  physical  uni- 
verse around  him,  it  prospers  and  blesses  all  his 
works,  lends  him  its  resistless  strength,  endues  him 
with  its  unerring  skill,  enriches  him  with  its  bound- 
less wealth,  and  fills  his  body  with  strength,  celerity, 
and  joy.  But  woe  to  the  people  or  the  man  who, 
through  ignorance  or  through  defiance,  contends 
against  the  visible  mechanism  or  the  invisible  chem- 
istry of  Nature's  laws.  Whoever  will  not  learn  and 
obey  these  laws,  her  lightnings  blast,  her  waters 
drown,  her  fires  consume,  her  pestilences  extinguish  ; 
and  she  could  crush  the  whole  human  race  beneath 
her  wheels,  nor  feel  shock  or  vibration  from  the 
contact. 

KEY  TO   THE   U XI VERSE. 

THE  material  universe  is  not  matter  alone.  It 
is  filled  with  scientific  treasures,  inconceivable, 
boundless,  endless.  Knowledge  furnishes  the  keys 
by  which  the  apartments  of  the  temple  containing 
these  treasures  can  be  unlocked. 


THOUGHTS.  83 

CONSEQUENCES  OF  PHYSICAL  EVILS. 

WERE  all  the  wrongs  and  calamities  which 
pertain  to  the  human  race  to  be  classified 
according  to  their  more  immediate  relation  to  the 
body,  the  intellect,  or  the  soul,  I  believe  by  far  the 
greater  proportion  of  them  would  be  found  to  pro- 
ceed from  the  bodily  appetites  and  propensities. 

SO  universal  and  long-continued  have  been  the 
violations  of  the  physical  laws,  and  so  omni- 
present is  human  suffering  as  the  consequence,  that 
the  very  tradition  of  a  perfect  state  of  health  has 
died  out  from  amonsr  men. 


I 


F  it  be  a  solemn  duty  to  keep  the  spirit  pure,  as 
a  sanctuary  for  the  Most  High ;  if  heart,  and 
soul,  and  mind  are  to  be  devoted  to  the  service  of 
God  and  of  our  fellow-men  ;  then  who  can  overstate 
our  responsibility  to  keep  the  body  —  through  which 
alone  and  by  which  alone  the  highest  achievements 
of  practical  heroism  can  be  won  upon  earth  —  in 
the  robustest  working  and  militant  condition  ? 

WELL  did  the  apostle  say,  "  Let  not  sin,  there- 
fore, reign  in  your  mortal  body,  that  ye  should 
obey  the  lusts  thereof."     Well  did  he  urge  his  fol- 


84  THOUGHTS. 

lowers  onward  by  telling  them  that  "  every  man  that 
striveth  for  the  mastery  is  temperate  in  all  things." 
Well  did  he  exhort  all  who  called  themselves  by 
the  name  of  Christ  to  present  their  "bodies  a  living 
sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  unto  God."  And 
well  did  he  set  forth,  what  was  perhaps  the  greatest 
of  all  his  achievements,  "  I  keep  under  my  body, 
and  bring  it  into  subjection,  lest  by  any  means 
when  I  have  preached  to  others,  I  should  myself 
be  a  castaway." 

NO  combatants  are  so  unequally  matched  as 
when  one  is  shackled  with  error,  while  the 
other  rejoices  in  the  self-demonstrability  of  truth ; 
yet  when  virtue  contends  with  vice  for  the  extirpa- 
tion of  social  abuses,  or  for  the  advancement  of 
great  reforms,  how  often  do  the  strong-bodied  rep- 
robates vanquish  the  weak-bodied  saints  ! 

IN  all  the  higher  departments  of  invention  and 
discovery,  in  the  soarings  of  genius,  and  in  the 
exultant  aspirations  of  sentiment,  all  well-organized 
and  healthy  persons  rise,  as  by  natural  buoyancy, 
to  the  sublimities  of  an  upper  sphere,  whither  im- 
becility, or  mediocrity  of  strength,  with  all  their 
strivings,  can  never  soar. 


H 


THOUGHTS.  85 

OW  beautiful  is  the  ever-changing  and  ever- 
renewing  beauty  of  HeaUh  !  —  the  raarmo- 
rean  repose  of  infantile  sleep  ;  the  singing  gladness 
of  childhood ;  the  exultant  and  sometimes  way- 
ward impulses  of  youth,  intoxicated  and  bewil- 
dered by  varieties  of  joy  ;  the  firm,  right-onward 
march  of  manhood,  unbarbed  by  an  arrow  of  pain, 
and  uncrippled  age  at  last,  venerable  in  its  serene 
and  lofty  front ;  —  how  beautiful  are  they  all ! 
Less  beautiful  is  the  clear-springing  fountain  with 
its  flower-adorned  brink ;  less  noble  the  mighty 
river,  cleaving  its  mountain-barred  passage  to  the 
deep,  and  less  reflective  of  all  the  glories  of  heaven, 
its  outspreading  and  calmer  current  as  it  lapses 
and  dies  into  the  sea ! 

ALMIGHTY  Mind  guides  the  universe.  As 
to  this  earth,  just  in  proportion  to  the  devel- 
opment and  culture  of  man's  intellect,  he  partici- 
pates in  that  guidance  ;  knowledge  enables  him  to 
lay  his  hand  upon  the  great  machinery  w^hich  God 
has  constructed,  and  to  direct  its  movements  for 
his  own  benefit. 

NO  longings,  no  night-watchings,  no  aspirations, 
will  ever  enable  us  to  see  one  inch  beyond 
the  capacity  of  our  glass. 


86  THOUGHTS 


0 


NE  such  man  as  Whitney  is  worth  more  than 
all   the   common   schools    of    New   England 
ever  cost. 

ABSOLUTE   TRUTH  IMMUTABLE. 

THERE  is  no  increase  of  absolute  truth  in  the 
universe,  and  there  can  be  none.  The  num- 
ber of  minds  that  know  truth  may  be  indefinitely 
increased,  but  there  can  be  no  more  truth  to  be 
known.  All  truth  pre-existed  in  the  Divine  Mind. 
The  creation  of  the  visible  universe,  with  the  for- 
mation of  the  countless  orders  of  beings  that  dwell 
in  it,  did  not  create  truth  ;  it  only  displayed  it.  It 
only  made  those  things  objective  in  the  splendors 
of  creation,  which  before  Avere  subjective  in  the 
Divine  Mind.  The  race  knows  vastly  more  now 
than  it  ever  knew  before,  and  will  doubtless  go  on 
redoubling  its  stores.  But  He  who  \vas  always 
infinite  cannot  be  more  than  infinite  now.  He 
who  was  always  omniscient  cannot  know  more  in 
the  future  eternity  than  he  did  in  the  past.  We 
speak  of  men  as  making  new  and  wonderful  inven- 
tions and  discoveries.  We  cannot  speak  so  of  the 
Deity.  Truth,  therefore,  is  not  progressive,  though 
finite  beings  may  be  forever  progressive  in  acquir- 
ing truth. 


THOUGHTS.  87 

USES  OF  KNOWLEDGE. 

WHAT  fulness  of  granary  and  storehouse, 
wliat  freights  for  ship  and  car,  come  from 
agricultural  knowledge,  —  that  is,  from  Mind,  — 
where  once  the  barrenness  of  earth  and  the  barren- 
ness of  ignorance  spread  a  common  solitude  ! 

SELF-IMPROVEMENT  must  precede  all  other 
improvement.  Whatever  miraculous  creations 
have  been  scattered  over  immensity  by  the  Divine 
Hand,  all  must  first  have  existed  in  the  Divine 
Thought. 

AS  each  generation  comes  into  the  world  devoid 
of  knowledge,  its  first  duty  is  to  obtain  pos- 
session of  the  stores  already  amassed.  It  must 
overtake  its  predecessors  before  it  can  pass  by 
them. 

CIVILIZATION  AND   CHRISTIANITY. 

AS  indications  of  the  supremacy  of  the  moral 
faculties,  and  as  a  measure  of  their  success, 
we  use  the  terms  Civilization  and  Christianity. 
But  these  terms  are  most  vaguely  used.  If  sub- 
jected to  the  least  rigorous  definition,  they  can 
import  nothing  less  than  a  knowledge  of  the  laius  of 
God,  and  an  obedience  to  them.     It  matters  not,  in 


88  THOUGHTS. 

any  good  sense,  what  men  profess ;  it  matters  not 
what  books,  or  institutions,  or  revelations  they  may 
have  inherited ;  the  stern  question  forever  recurs, 
Do  they  know  the  will  of  God,  and  do  they  ohey  it  f 

SCRIPTURE  SYMBOLICAL. 

THE  old  history  stands  for  a    universal  truth ; 
and    not  the  ancient    Sodom   alone,  but    any 
Sodom  could  be  saved  by  ten  righteous  men. 

INTEGRITY  OF  THE  SOUL. 

THE  inquiry  has  sometimes  been  made.  Which 
is  the  more  necessary  to  the  world,  intellect 
or  the  moral  sense?  We  might  as  well  inquire 
which  is  the  more  necessary  to  our  natural  life, 
air  or  food.  Doubtless  a  being  of  both  infinite 
intelligence  and  infinite  goodness,  can  see  no  diflfer- 
ence  between  the  expedient  and  the  right,  for, 
whatever  is  right  must,  in  the  long  run,  be  expe- 
dient ;  and  whatever  would,  in  the  long  run,  be 
inexpedient,  could  not  coincide  with  the  right. 

SUPREMACY  OF  THE  3I0RAL  LAW. 

GOD  created  the  universe  upon  the  principle  of 
the  supremacy  of  the  moral  law,  and  it  would 
be  easier  for  mankind  to  walk  on  their  heads,  or 


THOUGHTS.  89 

breathe  in  vacuity,  than  to  subvert  this  moral  order 
of  creation. 

UyiOX  OF  IXTELLECTUAL  ANT)  MORAL  LIFE. 

OH,  if  the  literary  institutions  of  our  land  would 
sanctify  their  ambition,  and,  instead  of  an 
earthly  rivalry  to  send  forth  great  men,  would 
provoke  each  other  to  the  holy  work  of  rearing 
good  men,  then  would  they  be  doubly  rewarded, 
both  by  greatness  and  goodness,  such  as  they  have 
never  yet  imagined. 

PROPORTIOX. 

IF  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere  immediately 
surrounding  a  few  persons  were  to  be  doubled, 
the  general  effect  would  be  imperceptible ;  but 
double  the  weight  of  the  earth's  atmosphere,  and 
all  acoustic  apparatus,  all  pneumatic  machinery, 
would  be  suddenly  endued  with  new  and  vaster 
energies.  So,  when  the  common  stock  of  knowl- 
edge is  enlarged,  all  men  are  enlarged  ;  because,  if 
gigantic  ideas  are  given  even  to  a  pygmy,  the  pygmy 
becomes  a  giant. 

INSIGHT. 

I^HE  philosopher  looks  at  the    scientific  proper- 
.    ties   of  matter,  and    admires ;    the    Christian 
beholds  not  only  the  gift,  but  the  Giver,  and  adores. 


90  THOUGHTS. 

The  one  has  only  the  knowledge  of  truth  ;  the  other 
the  rapture  of  devotion. 

SUPREMACY  OF  LAW. 

GOD    lives   and   rules   by  law;    and   therefore, 
wherever  He  lives,  and  wherever  He   rules, 
there  is  law,  and  a  law  of  God  is  a  command. 

DUTY. 

I  FIND  the  foundation  of  duty  in  the  being  and 
attributes  of  God.  There  are  secondary  and 
incidental  arguments,  but  this  is  the  primary  and 
original  one.  There  are  collateral  arguments,  but 
this  is  fundamental.  Even  on  the  atheistic  hypoth- 
esis of  no  God,  it  could  be  shown  that  Duty  is 
expedient ;  but  on  the  theistic  hypothesis  of  a  God, 
it  can  be  demonstrated  that  the  knowledge  and  per- 
formance of  Duty  are  the  highest  moral  necessities 
for  every  human  being. 

IXDIVID  UALITY. 

IF  men,  in  this  state  of  existence,  with  their  un- 
equal faculties,  unequal  attainments,  and  une- 
qual opportunities,  are  not  alike,  and  never  can  be 
alike  in  their  intellectual  or  metaphysical  concep- 
tions of  the  Deity,  how  can  they  be  aliie  in  wor- 


THOUGHTS.  91 

shipping  the  same  living  and  true  God  ?  I  answer, 
that,  with  the  greatest  diversity  of  thought,  they 
can  be  ahke  in  their  affections.  Love  must  be  the 
same  in  all  worlds. 

LOVE. 

LET  us  thank  God  that  our  humble  tribute  of 
devotion,  though  poured  from  the  nut-shell 
capacity  of  our  hearts,  will  be  as  acceptable  to  Him 
as  though  its  copious  floods  came  from  the  hollow 
of  the  ocean,  or  the  concave  of  the  sky.  The  bond 
of  love  engirdles  the  universe  ;  it  is  the  oneness  of 
Creator  and  created  ;  so  that,  as  Christ  said  to  his 
disciples,  "  Ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  my  Father, 
and  ye  in  me,  and  I  in  you." 

HOW  little  we  comprehend  the  significance  of 
the  tremendous  words.  Almighty,  All-power- 
ful, Omnipresent,  —  words  that  should  strike  the 
soul  as  successive  thunder-claps  would  strike  the 
ear. 

"  THE  STILL  SMALL    VOICE.'' 

ANIMAL  fear  sees  God's  power  with  the  senses, 
—  in  noise,  in  tumult,  in  flame ;  but  reason 
sees  it  in  silence,  in  order,  in  its  still  yet  eternal 
activities. 


92  THOUGHTS. 

EELIGIOX  OF  XATURE. 

TAKE  the  first  warm  day  in  spring;  go  out 
into  the  cultivated  fields  ;  walk  through  the 
solemn  woods,  or  by  the  streams.  What  millions 
of  millions  of  roots  are  now  waking  from  their 
wintry  slumber  !  how  in  all  their  veins  they  tingle 
with  new  life,  as  through  all  their  myriad  pores 
they  suck  in  the  water  that  lies  by  their  side  ! 
How  many  seeds  beneath  your  feet  are  alive ! 
what  gases  are  in  fermentation  within  them  to 
swell,  and  burst,  and  send  out  the  new  germ ! 
The  air  is  populous  with  insects  that  perform  their 
mystic  dances  in  the  sunbeam.  The  migratory 
birds  rise  in  such  flocks  as  darken  the  air,  to  go 
northwards  on  their  heaven-appointed  course,  and 
the  migratory  fishes  make  a  wave  swell  in  the  sea 
as  they  journey  southward  to  fulfil  the  great  econ- 
omy of  life.  Yesterday,  the  branch  of  every  tree, 
as  it  stood  out  against  the  sun,  was  naked  ;  to-day, 
his  light  is  obscured  by  its  myriad  leaflets.  Each 
one  of  all  those  insect  swarms,  of  those  flocks  of 
birds,  of  those  shoals  of  fish,  has  its  bones  and 
muscles,  its  lungs  and  brain  ;  and  an  instinct  that 
guides  them  to  their  destination  burns  in  them  all, 
as  though  each  one  were  a  king  or  a  queen,  and 
gloried    in    his    royal    blood.     What  varied,  what 


THOUGHTS.  93 

amazing,  what  incalculable  life  !  AVho  fashioneth 
these  countless  forms  ?  From  whose  capacious  urns 
are  they  filled  with  life  and  joy  ?  Who  metes  out 
the  span  of  all  their  days,  and  upholds  the  order  of 
their  generations  ? 

SYMMETRY  IN  NATURE. 

DID  you  ever  observe  the  wonderful  arrange- 
ment of  the  leaves  of  trees,  by  which  their 
attachment  to  diiFerent  sides  of  the  tree  can  be 
expressed  arithmetically?  Thus,  if  you  mark  the 
point  at  which  one  leaf  starts  out  from  the  trunk 
or  branch  of  certain  kinds  of  trees,  you  will  see 
that  the  next  leaf  above  it  is  exactly  on  the  oppo- 
site side,  so  that  the  third  one  is  over  the  first,  the 
fourth  over  the  second,  and  so  on, —  each  two 
leaves  being  equal  to  one  turn  round  the  tree  as 
you  ascend.  This  is  arithmetically  expressed  by 
one  half;  because  each  new  leaf  makes  half  a  turn 
round  the  tree.  In  the  plant  called  succory  it  takes 
three  leaves  to  make  this  spiral  turn  round  the 
stalk  ;  so  that  the  fourth  leaf  comes  perpendicu- 
larly over  the  first,  and  begins  a  new  turn.  As  it 
takes  three  leaves  here  to  make  one  turn,  we  de- 
note this  by  the  fraction  of  one  third.  In  the  apple 
tree,  five  leaves  or  buds  make  two  turns  round  the 


94  T  H  OU  G  H  T  S  . 

tree,  so  that  this  fact  is  expressed  by  the  fraction 
two  fifths.     In  the  currant  bush,  eight  leaves  make 
three  turns,  so  that  the  ratio  here  is  three  eighths. 
In   the  plant    called  shepherd's   purse,    it    is    five 
thirteenths  ;    and  in  another  still,  twenty-one   suc- 
cessive leaves,  as  you  ascend  spirally  round   the 
tree,   require   thirteen   turns.     And   here    another 
most  curious  fact  is  observed,  —  that  these  several 
numbers  form   an   ascending  series    in   which    the 
denominator  of  the  preceding  fraction  is  the  numer- 
ator of  the  succeeding  one,  and  the  denominator 
of  the  succeeding  one  is  the  sum  of  the  two  preced- 
ing denominators.     Thus,  starting  with  ^  and  ^,  we 
then  have  |,  f ,  y^vj,  ^f ,  and  so  on.     So  you  will  see 
the  other  wonderful  fact  I  mentioned,  that  the  suc- 
ceeding denominator  is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  two 
preceding  denominators.    Thus,  2^,  ^,  f  ;  2-|-3  — 5  ; 
^,  f,f;  3+5^=8;  hhi%',  5+8zrl3;  f,  f^,  H  ; 
8-|-13  =  21.     In  this  last  statement   there   is    one 
apparent    anomaly,   too  subtle   for   explanation  on 
this  occasion,*  though  adding  to  the  beauty  of  the 
result. 

This  exemplifies,  in  botany,  what  I  mean  by  laiu. 
It  applies  to  the  rose-bud,  the  oak-leaf,  the  pine- 
cone  ;  and  though  we  can  conceive  of  other  meth- 

*  Sermon  on  Law  —  the  first  principle. 


THOUGHTS.  95 

ocls  of  arraDging  the  leaves  on  plants  and  trees, 
yet  such  other  methods  are  nowhere  to  be  found  in 
nature. 

Now  turn  your  attention  for  a  moment  to  a  field 
of  nature  as  different  from  what  we  have  been  con- 
templating, as  the  planets  above  our  heads  are  from 
the  vegetation  beneath  our  feet.  The  mean  motion 
of  each  planet,  as  compared  with  its  next  interior 
planet,  is  uniformly  represented,  with  great  approx- 
imation to  exactness,  by  one  of  the  fractions  of  the 
same  series  I  have  given  to  you  in  reference  to  the 
growth  of  leaves. 

IGXORAXCE  AND  MIRACLES. 

KNOWLEDGE  has  its  boundary  line,  where  it 
abuts  on  ignorance  ;  on  the  outside  of  that 
boundary  line  are  ignorance  and  miracles ;  on  the 
inside  of  it  are  science  and  no  miracles. 

LA  IF  OF  RESPOXSIBILITT. 

WHEN  any  one  of  God's  truths  is  demonstra- 
bly made  known  to  us,  that  truth  is  equally 
entitled  to  our  homage  and  observance,  and  binds 
us  by  the  same  awful  sanctions,  whether  revealed 
from  the  cloudy  top  of  Sinai,  or  discovered  by 
philosophic    research,  or   even  by  accident.     It   is 


96  THOUGHTS. 

the  duty,  and  not  the  mode  of  demonstrating  it ;  it 
is  the  holy  message,  and  not  the  chance  messenger ; 
it  is  the  majesty  and  sanctity  of  God's  commands, 
and  not  the  red  or  black  ink  in  which  they  may  be 
printed ;  it  is  the  holiness  of  the  light  dispensed, 
and  not  the  direction  from  which  it  shines,  which 
thunders  and  flashes  its  appeals  on  the  soul,  and 
says.  Obey  ;  it  is  God's  will. 

COXSCIEXCE. 

COXSCIENCE  is  the  magnet  of  the  soul.  It 
has  a  divine  polarity.  Amid  the  tempests  of 
passion,  in  the  dark  hours  of  trial,  that  only  lie  just 
this  side  of  despair,  when  a  host  of  fierce  tempta- 
tions beleaguer,  then  consult  this  Divine  Monitor ; 
and  though  its  tiny  needle  may  tremble  amid  the 
attractions  of  earth,  yet,  if  uncorrupted,  its  pole- 
star  will  be  the  throne  of  God. 

TEMPTATIOX. 

THE  most  formidable  attribute  of  temptation  is 
its  increasing  power,  its  accelerating  ratio  of 
velocity.  Every  act  of  repetition  increases  power, 
diminishes  resistance.  It  is  like  the  letting  out  of 
waters,  —  where  a  drop  can  go,  a  river  can  go. 
Whoever  yields  to  temptation,  subjects  himself  to 
the  law  of  falling  bodies. 


THOUGHTS.  y  / 

THE  devil  tempts  men  througli  their  ambition, 
their  cupidity,  or  their  appetite,  until  he 
comes  to  the  profane  swearer,  whom  he  catches 
without  any  reward. 

NO  SUCH  THIXG  AS  ACCIDENT  IN  NATURE. 

NATURE,  or  God  acting  through  nature,  is 
uniform.  There  is  no  sign  of  accident  or 
caprice,  or  the  arbitrary,  fitful  interference  of  a 
superior  power,  but  the  things  of  nature  proceed 
onward  from  age  to  age  with  a  solemn,  majestic 
movement,  —  an  august  procession  that  strikes  the 
contemplative  beholder  with  awe,  and  expands  and 
lifts  his  soul  with  indescribable  emotions  of  sub- 
limity and  grandeur.  We  call  this  the  course  of 
Providence  ;  and  in  the  wisdom  that  planned  it,  in 
the  benevolence  with  which  it  overflows,  and  in  the 
omniscience  which  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning, 
it  is  worthy  of  a  God. 

LOOK  INWARD. 

HAVING  looked  outward,  around  us,  let  us  for 
a  moment  look  inward,  into  our  own  con- 
sciousness. Corresponding  with  the  w^onderful  or- 
der of  external  nature,  the  marvellous  arrangement 


98  THOUGHTS. 

of  bodies,  and  the  solemn  progression  of  events  in 
the  outward  world,  we  have  a  faculty  in  our  own 
souls,  whose  special  function  it  is  to  take  cogni- 
zance of  the  external  arrangement  and  order. 
Two  things  are  necessary :  the  order  of  the  exter- 
nal world,  and  the  power  of  availing  ourselves  of 
that  order  in  the  mental  world.  The  sublime 
external  order  we  call  Cause  and  Effect.  The 
faculty  within  us  which  recognizes  this  order,  we 
call  Causality. 

CAUSALITY. 

CAUSALITY  is  the  mightiest  intellectual  power 
bestowed  on  man.  No  such  intellectual  dif- 
ference exists  between  men,  as  between  the  man 
who  has  it  and  the  man  who  has  it  not.  The 
extremes  of  its  presence  or  its  absence  mark  the 
extremes  of  greatness  and  of  imbecility.  Idiots 
have  but  a  germ  or  minimum  of  it,  and  hence  they 
are  idiots. 

CAUSES. 

YOUTH  is  a  cause,  the  condition  of  manhood 
and  of  old  age  is  an  effect.  Time  is  a  seed- 
field  ;  in  youth  we  sow  it  with  causes  ;  in  after  life 
we  reap  the  haf  vest  of  effects.    God  has  established 


THOUGHTS.  99 

no  relation  more  indissoluble  than  that  between 
youth  and  age,  between  the  spring-time  of  causes 
and  the  autumn  and  winter  of  consequences. 
Cause,  cause,  cause,  is  stamped  all  along  upon  the 
conduct  of  youth ;  effect,  effect,  effect,  is  moulded 
and  chiselled  in  upon  the  results  of  that  conduct  in 
age.  Look  at  the  causes,  on  one  side  ;  look  at  the 
effects,  on  the  other ;  look  at  the  adamantine  rela- 
tion which  God  has  established  between  them. 

KIXGDOM  OF  GOD. 

IF  the  kingdom  of  God  means,  intrinsically,  the 
moral  supremacy,  the  undisputed  sway  of 
God's  holy  law  ;  and  if  it  means,  geographically, 
the  place  where  that  law  is  supreme,  unresisted, 
unquestioned,  then  the  difficulty  will  consist  rather 
in  finding  where  God's  kingdom  is,  than  where  it  is 
not.  We  shall  find  trouble  in  tracing  out  the  cir- 
cumference or  boundary  of  God's  law,  not  because 
the  included  territory  is  so  immensely  large,  but 
because  it  is  so  microscopically  small.  .  .  .  The 
earth  endured  Christ's  ministry  only  three  years  ;  — 
not  three  weeks  after  his  real  character  and  pur- 
poses were  generally  known. 


100  THOUGHTS. 

REMEDY  FOR  POVERTY. 

BY  far  the  greater  portion  of  tlie  privations  of 
the  poor  I  believe  to  be  unnecessary  and  avoid- 
able. The  poor  suffer  hardships  which  are  not  of 
Nature's  appointment.  They  bear  privations  which 
I  cannot  believe  to  be  permanently  involved  in  the 
system  of  Divine  Providence.  They  are  out  of 
their  place  in  the  social  system  ;  fallen  from  that 
sphere  of  dignity  and  happiness  which  Heaven  has 
prepared  them  to  occupy,  and  in  which  they  may 
yet  be  reinstated.  .  .  . 

In  the  midst  of  all  the  munificence  and  prodi- 
gality of  Heaven,  in  the  infinite  profusion  which  is 
spread  out  around  us,  and  the  supremacy  of  man's 
intellect  which  can  make  it  all  subservient  to  his 
welfare,  a  degi-ee  of  want  and  suffering  abounds. 
But  would  society  remove  the  causes  of  impov- 
erishment which  it  has  hitherto  so  diligently  en- 
couraged, the  number  of  the  sufferers  would  be 
almost  indefinitely  diminished,  and  it  would  be  no 
burden  to  give  a  comfortable  support  to  all  the 
remainiler. 

REMORSE. 

WHEN  a  man,  before  innocent,  commits  crime, 
he  passes,  by  a  sudden  transition,  into  a  new 
world.     The  significance  of  all  objects  around  him 


THOUGHTS.  101 

is  chauged ;  the  laws  of  association  in  his  own 
mind  are  changed  ;  a  viper  is  born  in  his  breast 
which  stings  and  goads  him.  Sounds  that  he  never 
heard  before  ring  in  his  ears  ;  a  violated  conscience 
turns  avenger  and  scourger ;  —  the  foe  is  within 
him.  Were  it  merely  an  external  enemy,  assault- 
ing the  criminal  from  without,  perhaps  he  might  be 
fled  from,  resisted,  bribed,  or  would  at  last  remit 
his  inflictions  through  very  weariness  of  tormenting. 
But  not  so  with  the  consciousness  of  wrong.  When- 
ever the  soul  works,  that  works,  for  it  is  a  part  of 
the  soul.     It  will  not  sleep,  nor  tire,  nor  relent. 

"  From  virtue's  ways  when  vicious  men  depart, 
The  first  avenger  is  the  culprit's  heart." 

FICTITIOUS  LITERATURE. 

ONE  of  the  most  beguiling  charms  of  fictitious 
literature  is  the  sympathy  for  misfortune 
which  it  excites.  To  captivate  us,  to  work  our 
feelings  up  to  the  highest  pitch  of  intensity,  is  the 
test  of  genius  or  criterion  of  an  author's  power. 
Subdued  by  his  magic  skill,  we  condole,  we  feel 
our  heartstrings  tightening,  deep  and  tender  emo- 
tions flow  out  in  tears,  on  reading  of  the  imaginary 
pains  of  imaginary  beings.  And  there  we  stop  ; 
for  the   humane  impulse  to  afford  relief  dissolves 


102  THOUGHTS. 

the  charm,  because  we  find  there  is  no  one  to  be 
relieved.  After  frequent  and  long  indulgence,  the 
will  is  intoxicated  and  made  captive,  like  that  of 
an  inebriate  ;  it  can  be  satisfied  with  nothing  but 
fiercer  stimulants,  until  it  becomes  deaf,  and  blind, 
and  heartless  to  the  most  melancholy  sufierings  at 
its  own  door.  Of  all  the  heartless  people  that  ever 
existed,  —  with  perhaps  the  single  exception  of 
pirates, — I  do  not  believe  there  is  any  class  so  in- 
sensible to  the  woes  of  poverty,  of  orphanage,  of 
juvenile  temptation,  and  of  juvenile  depravity,  as 
the  class  of  inveterate  novel-readers.  Of  all  the 
people  in  the  world  who  can  bear  most  resignedly, 
and  suffer  most  bravely,  all  the  misfortunes  of  other 
people,  the  professed  novel-reader  has  the  calmest 
and  the  stoutest  heart. 

XATURAL    PHILOSOPHY    VERSUS   LITERATURE  AXD 
HISTORY. 

IX  comparing  the  value  of  natural  or  physical 
philosophy  with  that  of  history  or  literature, 
we  are  struck  at  first  sight  with  this  all-important 
truth,  that  while  in  history  and  literature  we  are 
mainly  conversant  with  the  purposes  and  deeds  of 
men,  in  natural  philosophy  we  are  exclusively 
among  the  works  of  God.     In  the  former  we  see 


THOUGHTS.  103 

God  only  through  dim  and  distorting  media,  and 
hear  of  Him  only  at  second  hand.  But  in  the  latter 
we  are  admitted  into  His  presence  ;  we  behold  not 
only  His  works,  but  Him  working  ;  and  He  gives  us 
lessons  in  regard  to  the  sublime  plans  on  which  the 
universe  was  formed  and  is  operated.  History  may 
be  forged  or  falsified  ;  but  who  can  counterfeit  the 
signatures  of  the  Deity,  as  they  are  written  in  the 
earth  and  in  the  skies  ?  Men  may  be  corrupted  by 
literature,  or  sophisticated  by  false  systems  of  logic  ; 
but  in  tracing  the  processes  and  laws  of  Nature, 
we  are  walking  in  the  luminous  footprints  of  the 
Creator,  and  the  difference  between  these  and  the 
obscure  footprints  of  men  is  too  broad  and  bright 
to  be  mistaken. 

XATUBAL   PHILOSOPHY. 

OF  all  the  studies  in  the  world,  on  which  to  form 
early  and  sound  habits  of  investigation  and 
reasoning,  natural  philosophy  holds  preeminence. 
It  gives  us  the  happiest  proofs,  and  the  most  deep- 
rooted  convictions  of  truth  ;  it  furnishes  the  quickest 
admonitions  when  we  deviate  towards  error. 


0 


IGXORAXCE. 

X    entering    this    world    our    starting-point   is 
Ignorance.     None,  however,  but  idiots  remain 


104  THOUC^HTS. 

there.  All  others  make  advances  in  some  direc- 
tion. There  is  not  only  an  ability,  but  an  inexo- 
rable necessity,  for  the  human  mind  to  grow  and  to 
accumulate.  Would  you  see  to  what  different  re- 
sults this  growth  and  accumulation  come,  after  the 
lapse  of  seventy,  fifty,  or  even  forty  years,  look  on 
the  philosopher,  the  maniac,  and  the  felon. 

FALSE  KXOWLEDGE. 

WE  often  hear  false  notions,  false  ideas,  —  or 
what  I  call  false  knowledge,  —  spoken  of  as 
synonymous  with  ignorance.  This  is  a  great  mis- 
apprehension. False  knowledge  is  as  far  from  igno- 
rance on  the  one  side,  as  true  knowledge  is  from  it 
on  the  other.  True  knowledge  lifts  us  upward, 
false  knowledge  propels  us  downward.  Every  ad- 
dition of  true  knowledge  makes  the  soul  of  man 
more  beautiful,  more  powerful,  more  angelic.  Every 
addition  of  false  knowledge  deforms  the  soul,  crip- 
ples its  native  energies,  gives  it  false  hearing,  false 
vision,  false  sensations,  and,  of  course,  makes  all 
its  judgments  false. 

HISTORY. 

HISTORY,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  ought  to 
be  re- written.     A  moral   muse  should  indite 
it.     The  sin  of  unnecessary  wars  should  be  charged 


THOUGHTS.  105 

home  upon  their  authors  and  voluntary  instruments, 
until  what,  for  so  many  ages,  has  been  called  mili- 
tary glory,  should  turn  black  and  hideous,  and 
become  horrible  to  the  imagination. 

PHILOSOPHT  OF  HISTORY. 

THE  phenomena  of  history  should  be  so  recorded 
as  to  aid  the  reader,  and  particularly  the  young 
reader,  in  discovering  its  philosophy,  instead  of 
being  recorded  as  they  have  hitherto  generally  been, 
in  such  a  way  as  to  obliterate  the  better  instincts 
of  humanity. 

BIOGEAPHT. 

BIOGRAPHY,  especially  the  biography  of  the 
great  and  good,  who  have  risen  by  their  own 
exertions  from  poverty  and  obscurity  to  eminence 
and  usefulness,  is  an  inspiring  and  ennobling  study. 
Its  direct  tendency  is  to  reproduce  the  excellence  it 
records. 

LITERATURE. 

EVEN  the  choicest  literature  should  be  taken  as 
the  condiment,  and  not  as  the  sustenance,  of 
life.  It  should  be  neither  the  warp  nor  the  woof 
of  existence,  but  only  the  flowery  edging  upon 
its  borders.  Neither  deep  wisdom,  bold  action, 
the  administrative   faculty,    nor  that  soundness  of 


106  THOUGHTS. 

judgment  whose  predictions  are  always  ratified  by 
results,  ever  comes  from  the  study  of  literature 
alone. 

LAWS   OF  NATURE. 

IF  in  studying  the  works  and  laws  of  Nature,  we 
are  walking  with  its  great  Author  and  Sustainer, 
then  we  behold  this  department  of  truth  as  He  be- 
holds it ;  we  recognize  the  order  of  nature  and  the 
relations  of  cause  and  effect  as  He  recognizes  them, 
and  the  whole  tendency  of  this  must  be  to  bring  our 
minds  into  gi'ateful  harmony  with  His. 

SPIRITUAL   TRUTH. 

As  the  Infinite  Spirit  does  not  exhibit  Himself  to 
us  personally,  I  believe  He  intended  to  make 
known  to  us  His  natural  attributes,  through  a  knowl- 
edge of  His  works  ;  and  that,  for  this  purpose.  He 
pre-adapted  our  minds  to  acquire  this  knowledge  ; 
and  that,' so  far  as -we  do  acquire,  we  are  growing 
in  His  natural  image,  and  are  becoming  better  pre- 
pared for  the  reception  of  spiritual  truth. 

CLASSICAL   STUDY  AS  A   DISCIPLINE. 

IT   is    said   that   the    classics    are  valuable  as  a 
means  of  disciplining  the  mind ;  but  can  any- 
thing impart  so  true  and  perfect  a  discipline  as  the 


THOUGHTS.  107 

errorless  teachings  of  God?  The  inflections  of  a 
Greek  verb  may  be  strikingly  symmetrical  and 
harmonious  ;  but  even  in  the  polished  and  sculp- 
tured language  of  the  Greeks,  is  there  aught  so 
harmonious  and  symmetrical  as  the  evolution  of  a 
flower,  or  the  crystallization  of  a  rock,  or  the  for- 
mation of  the  rainbow,  or  the  unfolding  of  a  golden- 
winged  insect  from  its  chrysalis,  or  the  marvellous 
workmanship  of  the  human  eye,  where  spiritual 
and  material  beauties  glow  together  in  unison? 

GOD'S  LESSONS  IX  NATURE. 

IN  the  paradigms  given  us  by  the  All-wise  there 
is  nothing  irregular  or  defective.  Neither  ex- 
ception nor  anomaly  deforms  His  perfect  lessons. 
We  need  no  expurgated  edition  of  His  works,  for 
all  His  teachings  are  stainless  and  untainting,  and 
like  rays  of  light  from  the  sun,  they  may  fall  upon 
corruption  or  permeate  impurity,  but  cannot  them- 
selves be  defiled. 

NATURAL  PHILOSOPHY. 

THE  study  of  natural  philosophy  is  of  recent 
origin.  History  and  literature  have  been 
studied  wherever  men  have  studied  anything ;  but  it 
is  only  since  the  time  of  Lord  Bacon  that  natural 
philosophy  has  been  successfully  cultivated,  and  far 


108  THOUGHTS. 

more  has  been  done  for  it  within  the  last  hundred 
and  fifty  years  than  in  all  the  previous  centuries  of 
the  world's  existence. 

MORAL  INFLUENCE  OF  INTELLECTUAL 
CULTIVATION. 

I  AM  not  only  profoundly  convinced  that  it  is  the 
general  tendency  of  intellectual  cultivation  to 
promote  virtue,  but  that  no  community  can  ever 
rise  to  any  high  eminence  in  virtue  without  intellec- 
tual development.  Still  it  is  true  that,  as  a  good 
man  may  be  so  much  better,  in  proportion  to  his 
intellectual  power,  so  may  a  bad  man  be  so  much 
worse.  The  powers  of  the  intellect  are  like  the 
mercenary  soldiers  which  Switzerland  formerly 
sent  forth  to  join  in  the  European  wars,  —  almost 
equally  ready  to  fight  in  the  ranks  of  despot  as  of 
republican.  Precisely  the  same  powers  of  combi- 
nation, judgment,  prescience,  by  which  Napoleon 
built  up  his  blood-cemented  empire,  were  employed 
by  Washington  in  spreading  over  our  heads  the  all- 
sheltering  dome  of  a  republic. 

FANATICISM. 

RESISTANCE   to  improvement  contradicts  the 
noblest  instincts  of   the   race.     It  besets    its 
opposite.      The  fanaticism   of  reform   is    only  the 


THOUGHTS.  109 

raging  of  the  accumulated  waters  caused  by  the 
obstructions  which  an  uUra  conservatism  has 
thrown  across  the  stream  of  progress ;  and  revo- 
lution itself  is  but  the  sudden  overwhelming  and 
sweeping  away  of  impediments  that  should  have 
been  seasonably  removed.  The  French  Revolution 
was  a  frightful  spectacle  of  a  too  rapid  effort  at 
reform.  The  present  condition  of  England  and 
Ireland  is  a  spectacle  still  more  frightful  of  an 
almost  inflexible  conservatism. 

COLLEGES  AND   THE  PEOPLE. 

THE  relation  which  colleges  bear  to  the  commu- 
nity is  but  little  less  than  that  which  the  brain 
bears  to  the  rest  of  the  body.  It  is  not  enough  to 
say  that  "  knowledge  is  power."  In  our  times, 
hnowledge  is  government.  Once  the  soldier  bestrode 
and  ruled  mankind,  and  by  the  soldier  I  mean  the 
intellect  of  Alexander,  Caesar,  Napoleon,  superin- 
duced on  a  moral  substratum  of  tiger  or  wildcat. 
Then  came  the  priest.  The  priest  planted  his  bat- 
teries in  the  Avorld  that  is  to  come  rather  than  in 
the  world  that  now  is,  and  he  plied  his  artillery  at 
long  range.  Standing  secure  behind  the  ramparts 
of  the  future  life,  he  could  strike,  but  no  one  could 
strike   back.      The   priest  professed   to  act  under 


110  THOUGHTS. 

the  immediate  dictation  and  inspiration  of  God. 
Heaven  and  its  delights,  hell  and  its  torments,  were 
his,  and  he  was  commissioned  to  dispense  them 
among  friend  and  foe.  In  Christendom,  powers 
and  principalities,  garlands  and  crowns,  the  king- 
ship of  heavenly  hierarchies,  were  the  rewards  of 
those  who  would  subscribe  to  the  creed,  and  pro- 
mulgate the  dogma,  and  maintain  the  apostolic 
succession,  and  fight  the  battles  of  the  Church. 
In  Mohammedan  lands,  bowers  of  Paradise,  an 
elysium  for  every  sense,  balm  and  redolence  and 
splendor,  with  liouris  daily  renewing  their  beauty 
and  virgin  youth,  —  these  ever-returning  miracles 
of  joy  were  the  rewards  of  the  faithful.  But  tor- 
tures, inextinguishable,  inexhaustible,  and  without 
end ;  purgatories  to  meet  all  cases,  from  a  simple 
hot-bath  to  a  centillion  of  fiery  years  ;  caldrons  of 
all  temperatures,  to  fry,  or  roast,  or  boil ;  of  all 
sizes  also,  —  large  enough  to  hold  an  entire  nation 
or  race  of  heathen  or  heretic,  small  enough  to  sim- 
mer the  stillborn  babe  that  had  come  into  the  world 
without  ante-natal  baptism  ;  papal  bulls,  excommuni- 
cations, anathemas,  vomited  from  the  craters  of  such 
tophets  as  the  gods  alone  could  make,  and  falling  in 
a  storm  of  fire  and  hail  upon  unbelievers  ;  —  these 
were  the  enginery,  these  were  the  arsenal  and  maga- 


THOUGHTS.  Ill 

zine  of  weapons,  with  which  the  priest  conquered 
the  soldiery  and  bound  them  in  alliance  with  him 
for  the  subjugation  of  the  world. 

PRIESTCRAFT. 

TO  wonder  the  dominion  of  the  priest  has  been, 


and,  in  many  parts  of  the  earth,  still  is,  the 
most  dreadful  the  world  has  ever  known.  Founded 
upon  divine  authority,  being  the  only  acknowledged 
medium  of  communication  between  God  and  men, 
Avith  power  to  call  down  angels  from  above,  and  to 
call  up  demons  from  below,  drawing  subsidies  from 
all  the  realms  which  superstition  has  peopled,  with 
command  over  earthquake,  and  storm,  and  eclipse, 
and  all  the  fiery  portents  of  the  sky,  the  priesthood 
governed  the  world  as  it  never  had  been  governed 
before,  and  they  made  its  strength  minister  to  their 
aggrandizement,  and  its  beauty  to  their  pleasure. 
This  intelligence  Avedded  and  made  one  with  the 
pure  and  unperverted  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
w^orld  waits  for  a  glorious  atonement  at  their  hands. 

SELF-CONFIDEXCE   OF  IGXORAXCE. 

AN  ignorant  man  is  always  able  to  say  yes  or  no 
immediately  to  any  proposition.     To   a  wise 
man,  comparatively  few  things  can  be  propounded 


112  THOUGHTS. 

which  do  not  require  a  response  with  qualifications, 
with  discrimination,  with  proportion. 

PUT  a  man  into  a  factory,  as  ignorant  how  to 
prepare  fabrics  as  some  teachers  are  to  watch 
the  growth  of  juvenile  minds,  and  what  havoc  would 
be  made  of  the  raw  material ! 

EVILS  OF  BAD   TEACHING. 

PHYSIOLOGISTS  tell  us  that  pairs  of  nerves 
go  out  from  the  brain  to  every  part  of  the  body. 
Experiments  have  been  tried  upon  animals,  demon- 
strating that  if  the  nerves  which  go  from  the  brain 
to  the  stomach  be  cut  and  separated,  digestion 
instantaneously  ceases.  Bring  the  severed  ends 
of  the  nerves  together  again,  the  processes  of  life 
are  renewed.  Think  how  many  of  these  nerves  a 
harsh,  cruel,  ignorant  teacher  may  cut  in  a  day ! 

COMPENSA  TION. 

JAILS    and   state   prisons    are    the    complement 
of  schools  :  so  many  less   as  you  have  of  the 
latter,  so  many  more  must  you  have  of  the  former. 


I 


N  dress,  seek  the  middle  between  foppery  and 
shabbiness. 


THOUGHTS.  113 

WHY  IS  EDUCATION  IX  DISREPUTE? 

IT  is  the  cultivation  of  the  intellect  to  the  neglect 
of  the  moral  powers  that  has  brought  education 
into  disrepute. 

APPLICATION  OF  PRINCIPLES. 

WE  want  principles,  not  only  developed,  —  the 
work  of  the  closet, — but  applied;  which  is 
the  work  of  life.  Between  the  recluse,  who  never 
emerges  from  his  study,  however  well  he  may  rea- 
son on  human  nature,  and  the  active  man,  who  pre- 
pares the  machinery  and  puts  it  in  operation,  there 
is  the  same  difference  as  between  one  who  describes 
a  wolf  and  one  who  tames  the  animal. 

DUTY  OF  THE   TEACHER. 

WHEN  the  teacher  fails  to  meet  the  intellectual 
wants  of  a  child,  it  is  the  case  of  asking  for 
bread  and  receiving  a  stone ;  but  when  he  fails 
to  meet  its  moral  wants,  it  is  giving  a  serpent. 

FOLLOW  NATURE. 

WE  never  work  alone  :    Nature  works  with  us  ; 
sometimes  to  aid,  sometimes  to  defeat,  ac- 
cording as  we  coincide  with  or  contradict  her  laws. 
Every  branch  of  study  pertaining  to  the  useful  arts, 
8 


114  THOUGHTS. 

or  to  the  natural  sciences,  therefore,  demands  this  con- 
stant reference  to  the  laws  and  processes  of  nature. 
We  never  make  progress  without  a  recognition  of 
them.  But  not  so  in  works  of  imagination.  When 
we  give  reins  to  the  fancy,  we  can  have  everything 
our  own  way.  Absurdity  does  not  shock  us.  Im- 
possibility ceases  to  be  an  obstacle. 

RELATIOXS  OF  THIXGS. 

IN  the  works  of  Nature  nothing  stands  alone. 
Nature  is  full  of  connections.  No  one  subject 
can  ever  be  understood  alone.  We  must  know 
something  of  its  collaterals.  There  must  be  a  per- 
petual reference  to  related  objects.  It  is  true  there 
is  every  variety  in  nature.  Still  no  one  of  its  de- 
partments stands  alone.  There  is  as  distinct  a 
connection  as  between  the  different  parts  of  an  ex- 
tensive machine.  A  'perfect  knowledge  of  all  the 
different  parts  of  a  machine  is  no  knowledge  of  the 
machine  itself.  To  know  the  machine  one  must  know 
where  each  part  belongs,  and  what  its  office  is.  In 
the  study  of  nature  this  truth  is  forever  and  ever 
enforced  upon  one's  mind.  This  makes  discern- 
ment, comparison,  discrimination,  necessary  at 
every  step. 


H 


THOUGHTS.  115 

HABIT. 

ABIT  is  a  cable.     We  weave  a  thread  of  it 
every  day,  and  at  last  we  cannot  break  it. 


THE   prayer    of  Christ    was,     "Thy    kingdom 
come."     The   prayer  of  every  bigot  is,   "  3Iy 
kingdom  come." 

HAVE  HEATHENS  SOULS  t 

AFTER  the  discovery  of  America,  the  question 
was  started  among  the  ecclesiastics  of  Spain, 
whether  the  aborigines  of  North  America  had  souls. 
It  was  warmly  debated  pro  and  con.,  and  the  argu- 
ments were  so  equally  balanced  that  no  decision  was 
had  on  the  question.  But  it  was  wisely  suggested 
that  perhaps  they  had  souls,  and  therefore  mis- 
sionaries should  be  sent  to  them.  This  course  was 
adopted.  We  would  recommend  a  similar  decision. 
If,  peradventure,  the  children  have  moral  and  re- 
ligious natures,  they  ought  to  be  cultivated. 


I 


T  has  been  well  said  that  the  epithets  of  a  skil- 
ful orator  are  so  many  abridged  arguments. 


L 


OVE    your    fellow-creatures,    though    vicious. 
Hate  vice  in  the  friend  you  love  the  most. 


116  THOUGHTS. 

LITERARY  EXPRESSION. 

WE  get  at  the  full  value  of  a  well-expressed 
idea  only  by  conceiving  the  full  extent  of  the 
effect  it  produces.  Suppose  all  the  world  were  to 
read  at  the  same  moment  Hooker's  splendid  descrip- 
tion of  law  :  how  beautiful  is  the  thought  of  the 
innumerable  multitude  of  sublime  emotions  that 
would  vibrate  simultaneously  through  the  univer- 
sal soul  of  man  !  Suppose  some  irresistible  passage 
of  Shakspeare's  or  Sheridan's  wit  were  to  be  read 
by  all  men  capable  of  understanding  it  at  the  same 
moment,  all  sides  shaking  at  once,  and  the  very 
air  lifted  off  from  the  earth  by  the  explosion  ! 

ACTION  OF  CONSCIENCE. 

WHEN  a  child  can  be  brought  to  tears,  not  from 
fear  of  punishment,  but  from  repentance  for 
his  offence,  he  needs  no  chastisement.  When  the 
tears  begin  to  flow  from  grief  at  one's  own  conduct, 
be  sure  there  is  an  angel  nestling  in  the  bosom. 

EXCUSES   OF  TEMPTATION. 

GO  through  the  w^ards  of  a  prison,  read  on  the 
faces  of  the  convicted  felons  the  history  of 
passion  and  suffering,  and  dare  you  say  that  if  from 
the    cradle   you   had   been    encompassed    by   these 


THOUGHTS.  117 

temptations,  yon  should  have  escaped  unharmed? 
Those  whose  righteousuess  covered  them  in  the  fiery 
furnace  hud  had  a  life  fitted  to  grow  righteous  in. 


I 


N   this  country  we    seem   to   learn    our   rights 
quicker  than  our  duties. 


THE  man  who  brought  out  the  idea  of  the  in- 
finite divisibility  of  matter  did  the  world  no 
good,  and  yet  he  was  worthy  of  an  apotheosis,  com- 
pared with  the  men  who  are  illustrating  by  their 
works  the  infinite  divisibility  of  mind. 

MANNERS. 

MANNERS  are  the  root,  laws  only  the  trunk 
and  branches.  Manners  are  the  archetypes 
of  laws.  Manners  are  laws  in  their  infancy  ;  laws 
are  manners  fully  grown,  —  or,  manners  are  chil- 
dren, which,  Avhen  they  grow  up,  become  laws. 

RESPONSIBIITIES. 

AN  ignorant  and  degraded  portion  of  society  are 
to  the  intelligent  w^hat  children  are  to  parents  ; 
so,  as  parents  are  mainly  responsible  for  the  mis- 
conduct of  their  children,  the  intelligent  are  mainly 
responsible  for  the  vices  of  the  abandoned. 


118  THOUGHTS. 

IGNORANCE. 

IGNORANCE  has  been  well  represented  under 
the  similitude  of  a  dungeon,  where,  though  it 
is  full  of  life,  yet  darkness  and  silence  reign.  But 
in  society  the  bars  and  locks  have  been  broken  ;  the 
dungeon  itself  is  demolished  ;  the  prisoners  are  out ; 
they  are  in  the  midst  of  us.  We  have  no  security 
but  to  teach  and  renovate  them. 

POVERTY  OF  SPIRIT. 

IT  is  the  age  of  commerce,  of  profit,  of  finance. 
One  part  of  our  nature  is  intensely  stimulated. 
Let  us  beware  of  the  effect  of  this  stimulus  upon 
that  nobler  portion  of  our  being,  w^hich  no  splendor 
of  opulence  nor  profusion  of  luxuries  can  ever  sat- 
isfy ;  which  demands  allegiance  to  God,  and  justice 
and  humanity  towards  our  fellow-men  ;  and  which 
must  have  them,  or  die  the  second  death.  We  may 
be  poor  ;  but  let  us  deprecate  and  forefend  the  most 
calamitous  of  all  poverties  —  a  poverty  of  spirit. 
We  may  be  subjected  to  great  sacrifices  ;  but  let  us 
sacrifice  everything  else,  nay,  life  itself,  before  we 
sacrifice  our  principles.  I  commend  to  you  the 
language  of  Bishop  Watson,  who,  when  tempted  to 
stifle  the  expression  of  his  convictions  through  the 


THOUGHTS.  119 

hope  of  kingly  patroDage,  replied,  that  it  was 
"  better  to  seek  a  fortuitous  sustenance  from  the 
drippings  of  the  most  barren  rock  in  Switzerland, 
with  freedom  for  his  friend,  than  to  batten  as  a 
slave  at  the  most  luxurious  table  of  the  greatest 
despot  in  the  world." 

COMPROMISE  MEASURES  OF  1850. 

SOME  of  these  compromise  measures  are  des- 
tined to  be  of  great  historic  importance.  They 
will  be  drawn  into  precedent.  When,  in  evil  days, 
further  encroachments  are  meditated  against  human 
rights,  these  old  measures  will  be  cited  as  a  sanction 
for  new  aggressions  ;  and,  in  my  view,  they  will 
always  be  found  broad  enough,  and  bad  enough,  to 
cover  almost  any  nameable  assault  upon  human  lib- 
erty. When  bad  men  want  authority  for  bad  deeds, 
they  will  only  have  to  go  back  to  the  legislation 
of  Congress,  in  1850,  to  find  an  armory  full  of  the 
weapons  of  injustice.  When  several  of  these  meas- 
ures were  passed,  and  particularly  when  one  of 
the  most  obnoxious  and  criminal  of  them  all  was 
passed,  —  I  mean  the  Fugitive  Slave  bill,  —  the 
House  was  not  a  deliberative  body.  Deliberation 
was  silenced.  Those  who  knew  they  could  not  meet 
our  arguments,  chokqpl^  their  utterance.     The  pre- 


120  THOUGHTS. 

vious  question,  which  was  originally  devised  to  curb 
the  abuse  of  too  much  debate,  was  perverted  to  stop 
all  debate.  The  floor  was  assigned  to  a  known 
friend  of  the  bill,  who,  after  a  brief  speech  in  pallia- 
tion of  its  enormities,  moved  the  previous  question  ; 
and  thus  we  were  silenced  by  force,  instead  of  being 
overcome  by  argument.  For  I  aver,  without  fear 
of  contradiction,  that  the  bill  never  could  have 
become  a  law,  had  its  opponents  been  allowed  to 
debate  it,  or  to  propose  amendments  to  it. 

A  FREE  COUNTRY. 

THIS  is  a  free  country,  except  when  a  man 
wishes  to  vindicate  the  claims  of  freedom. 
All  other  parts  of  the  temple  may  be  entered,  but 
slavery  is  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  and  whoso  lays 
his  profane  hands  thereon  must  perish. 

FREE  SPEECH. 

I  FEEL  none  the  less  inclined  to  discuss  the 
question  of  freedom  because  an  order  has  gone 
forth  that  it  shall  not  be  discussed.  Discussion 
has  been  denounced  as  agitation,  and  then  it  has 
been  dictatorially  proclaimed  that  "  agitation  must 
be  put  down."  Humble  as  I  am,  I  submit  to  no 
such  dictation,  come  from  what  quarter  or  what 


THOUGHTS.  121 

numbers  it  may.  If  such  a  prohibition  is  intended 
to  be  laid  upon  me  personally,  I  repel  it.  If 
intended  to  silence  me  as  the  representative  of  the 
convictions  and  feelings  of  my  constituents,  I  repel 
it  all  the  more  vehemently.  In  this  government,  it 
is  not  tolerable  for  any  man,  however  high,  or  for 
any  body  of  men,  however  large,  to  prescribe  what 
subjects  may  be  agitated,  and  Avhat  may  not  be 
agitated.  Such  prescription  is  at  best  but  a  spe- 
cies of  lynch  law  against  free  speech.  It  is  as 
hateful  as  any  other  form  of  that  execrable  code, 
and  I  do  but  express  the  common  sentiment  of  all 
generous  minds,  when  I  say  that  for  one,  I  am  all 
the  more^  disposed  to  use  my  privilege  of  speech, 
when  imperious  men,  and  the  sycophants  of  imperi- 
ous men,  attempt  to  ban  or  constrain  me.  In  Italy, 
the  Pope  decides  what  books  may  be  read  ;  in  Aus- 
tria, the  emperor  decides  what  books  may  be  writ- 
ten ;  but  we  are  more  degraded  than  the  subject  of 
pontiff  or  Csesar,  if  we  are  to  be  told  what  topics 
we  may  discuss.  ...  I  hold  treason  against  this 
government  to  be  an  enormous  crime  ;  but  great  as 
it  is,  I  hold  treason  against  free  speech  to  be  incom 
parably  greater. 


122  THOUGHTS. 

A  TOBCH  OF  FIRE. 

WHEN  was  there  ever  written  or  published 
a  more  fanatical  document  than  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  ?  —  a  torch  to  set  the  world 
on  fire. 

RETRIBUTION. 

IT  seems  as  if,  when  a  freeman  debases  his  soul 
by  lending  himself  to  the  defence  of  slavery, 
God  punishes  him  on  the  spot,  by  demoralizing  his 
own  nature  with  that  spirit  of  tyranny  which  be- 
longs to.  slavery.  Wherein  consists  the  advantage 
of  a  republican  government  over  a  despotism,  if 
the  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  which  can 
be  strangled  in  the  one  by  arbitrary  command,  can 
be  stifled  in  the  other  by  obloquy  and  denunciation. 

DISCUSSION  AND  AGITATION. 

IT  was  by  discussion  and  agitation  that  the  first 
glowing  sparks  of  liberty  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Adamses,  of  Hancock,  and  of  Franklin,  of  Thomas 
Jefferson  and  of  Patrick  Henry,  were  fanned  into  a 
flame  that  consumed  the  hosts  of  the  tyrant,  — 
that  tyrant  who  sought  to  put  down  this  dreadful 
agitation  by  means  not  a  whit  more  reprehensible 
in  his  day,  than  those  by  which  certain  leading 
men  are  strivinoj  to  silence  it  now. 


THOUGHTS.  123 

TRUTH  SEEKS  LIGHT. 

ON  the  face  of  it,  it  must  be  a  bad  cause  which 
will  not  bear  discussion.  Truth  seeks  light 
instead  of  shunning  it.  He  convicts  himself  of 
wrong  who  refuses  to  hear  the  arguments  of  his 
opponent. 

AGITATION. 

AGITATION  is  a  part  of  the  sublime  order  of 
nature.  In  thunder,  it  shakes  the  stagnant 
air,  which  would  otherwise  breed  pestilence.  In 
tempests,  it  purifies  the  deep,  which  would  other- 
wise exhale  miasma  and  death.  And  in  the  immor- 
tal thoughts  of  duty,  of  humanity,  and  of  liberty, 
it  so  rouses  the  hearts  of  men  that  they  think  them- 
selves inspired  by  God ;  and  not  the  mercenary 
clamor  of  the  market-place,  nor  the  outcries  of 
politicians,  clutching  at  the  prizes  of  ambition,  can 
suppress  the  utterances  that  true  men  believe  them- 
selves heaven-committed  to  declare. 

"  C03IPR0MISE  MEASURES." 

I  DRAW  no  augury  of  despair  from  the  calamity 
that  has  befallen  us.  It  teaches  whatever  there 
is  of  virtue  and  of  principle  in  manhood,  the  task 
which  has  been  set  them  to  do,  and  whose  accom- 
plishment God  will  require  at  their  hands. 


124  THOUGHTS. 

COXSCIENCE. 

"TTTHAT  cares  mj  conscience  Avhether  I  am  in  a 
f  T  minority  or  a  majority,  if  I  am  right  ?  Has 
any  great  and  glorious  cause  ever  been  started  upon 
earth  that  did  not  find  itself,  at  the  outset,  in  a 
minority  ? 

PUBLIC  OPIXIOX  IX  1850. 

A  SLAVE,  it  is  said,  is  not  one  of  the  "  peo- 
ple "  by  whom  and  for  whom  the  Constitution 
was  formed.  He  is  an  outlaw,  and  an  outcast. 
He  has  no  inherent  or  inalienable  rights  as  a  man. 
What  he  has,  he  has  ex  gratia^  by  the  good  will  of 
those  who  own  him  body  and  soul,  and  who  are  gra- 
ciously pleased  to  forego  some  of  their  legal  rights 
from  generosity  in  themselves,  and  not  from  justice 
to  liim.  As  it  seems  to  me,  a  most  obvious  princi- 
ple confutes  this  argument  utterly.  By  the  laws  of 
the  free  states,  we  know  no  such  being  as  a  slave. 
Our  courts,  in  their  functions  as  state  courts,  do 
not  understand  the  meaning  of  the  word  slave.  To 
talk  to  them  in  that  capacity  about  a  slave,  or 
slavery,  is  to  talk  to  them  in  an  unknown  tongue. 
In  the  eye  of  the  legislators  of  the  free  states,  and 
in  the  eye  of  the  courts  of  the  free  states,  so  far  as 
their  domestic  polity  is  concerned,  there  can  be  no 
such  creature  as  a  slave. 


THOUGHTS.  125 


TRIAL  BY  JURY. 


IT  is  the  most  cruel  of  sophisms  to  say  that  be- 
cause a  man  is  claimed  as  a  slave,  he  is  not 
under  the  protection  of  the  Constitution,  and  then 
to  'prescribe  a  hase  mode  of  trial  for  liim^  hy  ivhich 
he  can  he  proved  the  thing  he  is  claimed  for. 

THE  Constitution  of  every  free  state  in  this 
Union  must  be  first  altered,  before  any  such 
being  as  a  slave,  or  any  such  condition  as  slavery, 
can  be  recognized  under  them,  as  state  authorities. 

SUMMARY  TRIAL   OF  A   SLAVE. 

ACCORDING-  to  the  mode  of  proceeding  under 
the  Fugitive  Slave  act,  the  first  thing  which 
the  commissioner  says  to  his  victim  is,  "  Being  a 
slave,  you  must  be  tried  in  a  summary  manner." 
"  But  I  am  not  a  slave,"  asseverates  the  respond- 
ent, "  and  I  claim  to  be  tried  by  my  peers  under 
the  guaranties  of  the  Constitution."  "  You  are  no 
party  to  the  Constitution,"  rejoins  the  commis- 
sioner, "  and  therefore  not  entitled  to  its  shelter. 
The  Constitution  was  made  by  the  people,  and  for 
the  people,  and  you  are  not  of  them."  Then  says 
the  victim,  "  If  I  could  have  the  trial  due  to  a 
freeman,  I  could  prove  myself  a  freeman  ;  but  un- 


126  THOUGHTS. 

der  the  form  of  trial  awarded  to  a  slave,  I  may- 
be adjudged  a  slave  ;  so  that  my  fate  is  made  to 
depend,  not  on  my  rights,  but  upon  your  form  of 
proceeding." 

FEDERAL   COXSTITUTION. 

THE  immortal  principles  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  were  partially  embodied  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  But,  as  the  pre- 
existing metaphysics  and  mythology  of  the  heathen 
nations  mingled  with  the  pure  spirit  of  Christianity, 
and  corrupted  it,  so  the  preexisting  laws  and  usages 
of  oppression  deformed  to  some  extent  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
stamped  some  hideous  features  upon  the  otherwise 
fair  face  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

THE  MOLOCH  OF  SLAVERY. 

AS  a  true  disciple  of  Christ  ought  to  feel  if  he 
saw  the  imbrutiug  dogmas  and  Moloch  rites 
of  heathenism  returning  to  invade  Christendom, 
and  to  extinguish  the  lights  of  the  gospel,  so  should 
every  lover  of  liberty  feel  when  he  sees  the  fell 
spirit  of  slavery  regaining  its  lost  empire  over  the 
institutions  of  freedom. 


THOUGHTS.  127 

ANNEXATION-  OF  TEXAS. 

FROM  the  fatal  day  of  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
thousands  and  thousands  of  honest  and  intel- 
ligent Democrats,  though  still  remaining  true  to 
what  they  believed  to  be  the  principles  of  the  party, 
became  alienated  from  its  leaders.  From  that  day, 
the  claims  of  the  party  lay  lightly,  but  the  sins  of 
the  party  heavily,  upon  their  souls  ;  and  some  there 
were,  who,  like  Daniel  of  old,  went  into  their  cham- 
bers three  times  every  day,  and  throwing  open  the 
windows  which  looked  towards  the  Jerusalem  of 
liberty,  prayed  aloud  to  the  true  God,  although 
within  hearing  of  the  wild  beasts  which  had  been 
prepared  to  devour  them. 

"7)0  AS    YOU   WOULD  BE  DONE  BY." 

IF  the  selfish  and  bestial  part  of  our  nature 
comes  into  conflict  with  the  higher  law  of  justice 
and  mercy  ;  if  we  look  through  the  magnifying  end 
of  the  telescope  at  our  rights,  and  through  its  be- 
littling end  at  our  duties ;  if  personal  or  family 
affections  bring  an  object  so  near  to  our  eye  that 
we  can  see  nothing  beyond  it ;  if,  I  say,  our  selfish- 
ness thus  threatens  to  override  our  conscience,  —  then 
we  find,  not  only  support,  but  solace,  in  the  heaven- 
descended   maxim,     "Whatsoever   ye   would   that 


128  THOUGHTS. 

men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  also  the  same  unto 
them." 

GOLDEN  RULE  PEIiVEBTEB. 

IN  the  year  1850,  when  that  deadly  blast  of  pro- 
slavery  blew  over  the  North,  a  gentleman  in 
the  city  of  Lowell  wrote  and  printed  a  pro-slavery 
tract,  in  which  he  cited  the  Golden  Rule  of  the 
Savior  in  favor  of  slaveholding ;  that  is,  he  so 
bewitched  and  bedeviled  that  holy  precept,  as  to 
make  it  read,  "  Whatsoever  other  men  would  do  to 
you,  if  they  have  a  chance,  do  ye  also  the  same 
to  them." 

A  MAN'S  A  MAN  FOR  A'   THAT. 

I  DO  not  care  whether  the  commonly  received 
notion  is  found  to  be  true,  —  namely,  that  all 
men  are  descendants  from  one  Adam  and  Eve,  — or 
whether  science  shall  prove  a  various  origin  of  the 
races,  as  many  Adams  and  Eves  as  there  are  types 
of  mankind,  —  five  or  fifty.  The  principle  is  this  : 
Wherever  we  find  God-like  capabilities,  mental  and 
moral,  —  the  "  thoughts  that  wander  through  eter- 
nity ; "  the  innate  recognition  of  a  Supreme  Ruler 
of  the  Universe  ;  the  prophecy,  the  prescience,  as 
it  were,  of  immortality ;  and  those  sympathetic 
nerves  which,   reaching  beyond  the   body,  ramify 


THOUGHTS.  129 

over  the  race,  and  thrill  with  joy  or  throb  with 
paiu  at  the  happiness  or  misery  of  others,  —  where 
these  exist,  I  will  not  inquire  about  the  color  or 
the  condition  of  hair,  nose,  lips,  armpit,  clavicle, 
or  heel-bone  ;  but  in  spite  of  them  all,  I  proclaim, 
in  the  language  of  the  Scottish  bard,  — 

"  A  man's  a  man  for  a'  that." 
TRUTH  AXD  ERROR. 

AS  there  are  some  lofty  and  comprehensive 
truths  which  can  be  born  only  of  lofty  and 
comprehensive  souls,  so  there  is  a  profligacy  and 
flagitiousness  of  iniquity  which  none  but  a  dark 
and  perverted  soul  could  ever  originate.  The  no- 
blest and  grandest  minds  that  have  ever  lived, 
could  not,  even  with  a  lifetime  of  effort,  ever 
think  out  the  despicabilities  and  abominations  that 
a  mean,  bad  man  can  originate  extemporaneously. 

ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  SHAD  RACE. 

I  BELIEVE  God  must  have  been  as  well  pleased 
with  the  escape  of  the  modern  Shadrach  from 
the  commissioner  in  Boston,  as  with  the  escape 
of  the  ancient  Shadrach  from  Nebuchadnezzar  in 
Babylon.  I  only  wish  that  Simms  and  Burns 
could  have  stood  for  Meshach  and  Abednego. 


130  THOUGHTS. 

LIBERTY  OF  THOUGHT. 

■\  I7HEN  thoughts  cannot  find  vent  and  utter- 
f  f  ance  in  action,  the  mind  ceases  to  think.  It 
■will  not  continue  to  produce  its  mighty  births  of 
power  and  beauty,  to  see  them  fall  dead-born  into 
the  world,  or  to  be  strangled  in  embryo.  The 
painter's  and  the  sculptor's  genius  would  palsy  and 
die  but  for  the  canvas  and  the  marble  on  whose 
objective  glories  it  can  luxuriate  and  grow  rap- 
turous ;  and  patriotic  bravery  would  perish  out  of 
tlie  life  of  man,  but  for  the  Thermopylses  and 
Bunker  Hills  wdiere  it  turns  common  earth  into 
holy  ground.  The  fire  of  poet  and  orator  would 
be  quenched,  yea,  the  rapt  spirit  of  Isaiah  would 
droop  its  wing,  but  for  the  effulgence  and  the  pal- 
pableness  of  the  visions  they  project  upon  the  upper 
sky,  and  frame  like  pictured  glories  in  the  solid 
earth. 

A  B  BITE  A  RT  GO  VERNMENTS. 

ARBITRARY  governments  say  and  do  what 
they  please  against  the  subject,  but  they  forbid 
the  subject,  under  extremest  penalties,  from  saying 
or  doing  aught  against  them.  Such,  hitherto,  has 
been  ahnost  the  entire  history  of  the  human  race  — 
the  people  debarred  from  doing  right  —  the  govern- 
ment licensed  to  do  wrong. 


THOUGHTS.  131 

RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY. 

THE  greatest  temporal  blessing  ever  enjoyed  by 
man  is  religious  liberty  ;  the  greatest  temporal 
calamity  ever  suftered  by  man  is  religious  despot- 
ism. Without  religious  liberty,  Christianity  is 
struck  with  paralysis.  If,  then,  you  have  any  spot 
in  your  citadel  more  strongly  built  or  more  vigi- 
lantly guarded  than  all  others,  there  place  the  ark 
of  your  religious  liberty.  Watch  it  with  the  sleep- 
less eye  of  cherubim  and  seraphim.  Guard  it 
with  a  flaming  sword.  Feel  a  shudder  of  horror 
through  all  your  frame  when  it  is  assailed  or  men- 
aced by  impious  hands ;  and  remember  that  he 
who,  in  our  age,  will  strive  to  steal  this  right  from 
your  possession,  will  begin  by  striving  to  make  the 
Bible  an  accomplice  in  the  crime. 

LAW  OF  LIBERTY. 

JUST  as  far  as  a  man  denies  civil  liberty  or 
religious  liberty  to  others,  he  debars  himself 
from  the  possession  of  Christian  liberty.  This  is  a 
universal  law.  There  is  a  moral  necessity  by  which 
every  man  who  keeps  others  out  of  their  rights 
keeps  himself  out  of  his  own  enjoyments.  If  I 
desire  to  keep  a  man  outside  of  heaven,  I  must 
stand  myself  eternally  outside  of  heaven  to  do  it. 


132  THOUGHTS. 

The  moral  wrong  I  Avould   commit  separates  me 
from  the  moral  bliss  I  would  enjoy. 

PRESERVATION-  OF  OUR  LIBERTIES. 

WE  must  show  our  love  of  liberty  by  our  readi- 
ness to  make  sacrifices  for  it.  Is  it  not 
amazing  that  we  are  so  neglectful  of  so  precious  a 
boon?  Our  revolutionary  fathers  abandoned  the 
endearments  of  home,  sacrificed  property,  encoun- 
tered disease,  bore  hunger  and  cold,  and  stood  on 
the  fatal  edge  of  battle,  to  gain  that  liberty  which 
many  of  their  descendants  will  not  go  to  the  polls, 
on  a  fair  day,  to  protect.  Our  Pilgrim  Fathers 
expatriated  themselves  from  their  native  land, 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  —  then  a  greater  enterprise 
than  it  would  be  now  to  .circumnavigate  the  globe, 
—  braved  the  terrors  of  a  wintry  clime,  an  inhos- 
pitable shore,  and  a  savage  foe,  that  they  might 
find  a  spot  where,  unmolested,  they  could  worship 
God,  while  so  many  of  us  cast  away  all  civil  and  reli- 
gious franchise,  and  throw  our  votes  in  wantonness 
to  gratify  revenge,  or  for  a  bribe. 

LIBERTY  AND  LABOR. 

UNIVERSAL  liberty  necessitates  labor.    Where 
men  have  to  labor  on  their  own  account,  and 


THOUGHTS.  133 

are  striving  with  the  least  expenditure  of  force  to 
produce  the  greatest  amount  of  profitable  resuUs, 
they  have  the  strongest  motive  to  abridge  processes, 
to  economize  strength,  to  turn  out  equal  products 
with  less  effort,  or  greater  products  with  equal 
effort.  Hence  the  origin  of  the  inventive  arts. 
Hence  contrivances  to  abridge  labor,  to  call  in  the 
mighty  forces  of.Nature  to  supersede  the  feeble 
force  of  human  muscles,  and  to  perfect  processes 
by  the  precision  and  energy  of  Nature's  powers. 
And  it  will  be  found  that  men  will  have  made  but 
little  progress  in  this  direction  before  they  open  re- 
sources vastly  greater  than  any  to  be  found  in 
human  strength.  Nature  will  endue  them  with  a 
capacity  v.iiich  tyrants,  even  those  of  the  Oriental 
order,  never  possessed.  They  have  discarded  human 
servitude,  and  Nature,  as  a  reward,  has  placed  her 
mighty  energies  at  their  disposah  For  the  emanci- 
pation of  one  mortal,  the  power  of  a  hundred  is 
given  them  as  a  recompense. 

INVENTIONS. 

INVENTIONS  in  this  country  have  risen  up  at 
the  North,  and  not  at  the  South.  The  comforts 
and  the  competency  of  life  are  best  known  and 
most  universally  diffused   where   slavery  does  not 


134  THOUGHTS. 

exist.  In  the  order  of  Nature,  those  who  are  led 
by  the  Lord  shall  find  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey. 

DELIVERANCE. 

ARE  the  slaves  never  to  have  their  Thermopylae, 
their  Bunker  Hill,  or  San  Jacinto?  If  I  or 
my  descendants  ever  meet  them  in  such  an  en- 
counter, I  hope  we  shall  be  discomfited,  as  were 
Xerxes,  General  Gage,  and  Santa  Anna. 

UNION. 

THERE  is  no  Union  when  we  must  buy  it  and 
pay  for  it  every  day.     Why  do  tou  swear  so  ? 

PROTECTION  TO  LABOR. 

PROTECTION  to  labor  is  of  equal  importance 
with  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the 
first  article  in  the  Bill  of  Rights,  "All  men  are 
born  free  and  equal.  All  men  are  created  equal." 
Mr.  Clay's  criticism  —  "  Not  created^  but  born  "  — 
then  there  is  no  Creator? 

CHANGE  OF  TACTICS. 

WHO  changes?     Is   the  Whig  party   hung  on 
what  the  mechanicians  call  a  universal  joint, 
so  that  they  can  turn  any  way  with  equal  facility  ? 


THOUGHTS.  135 

CASTE. 

11HE  law  of   caste   includes  witliin    itself   every 
.    form  of  iniquity,  because  it  lives  by  the  prac- 
tical denial  of  human  brotherhood. 

NATIVE  LOVE  OF  LIBERTY. 

ALL  the  noblest  instincts  of  human  nature  rebel 
against  slavery.  Whenever  we  applaud  the 
great  champions  of  liberty,  who,  by  the  sacrifice 
of  life  in  the  cause  of  freedom,  have  won  the 
homage  of  the  world,  and  an  immortality  of  fame, 
we  record  the  testimony  of  our  hearts  against  it. 
Wherever  patriotism  and  philanthropy  have  glowed 
brightest,  wherever  piety  and  a  devout  religious 
sentiment  have  burned  most  fervently,  there  has 
been  the  most  decided  recognition  of  the  universal 
rights  of  man. 

SLAVERY  A   STATE  OF  WAR. 

THE  conscious  idea  that  the  state  of  slavery  is 
a  state  of  war,  —  a  state  in  which  superior 
force  keeps  inferior  force  down,  —  develops  and 
manifests  itself  perpetually.  It  exhibits  itself  in 
the  statute-books  of  the  slave  states,  prohibiting  the 
education  of  slaves,  making  it  highly  penal  to  teach 
them    so    much  as    the  alphabet ;    dispersing   and 


136  THOUGHTS. 

punishing  all  meetings  where  they  come  together  in 
quest  of  knowledge.  Look  into  the  statute-books 
of  the  free  states,  and  you  will  find  law  after  law, 
encouragement  after  encouragement,  to  secure  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge.  Look  into  the  statute- 
books  of  the  slave  states,  and  you  find  law  after 
law,  penalty  after  penalty,  to  secure  the  extinction 
of  knowledge. 

SLAVE  MARTS. 

rjlHERE  are  now  (1848)  two  conspicuous  places 
JL  — places  which  are  attracting  the  gaze  of  the 
whole  civilized  world  —  Avhither  men  and  women 
are  brought  from  great  distances  to  be  sold,  and 
whence  they  are  carried  to  great  distances  to  suffer 
the  heaviest  wrongs  that  human  nature  can  bear. 
One  of  these  places  is  the  coast  of  Africa,  which  is 
among  the  most  pagan  and  benighted  regions  of  the 
earth  ;  the  other  is  the  District  of  Columbia,  the 
capital  and  seat  of  government  of  the  United 
States.  By  authority  of  Congress,  the  city  of 
Washington  is  the  Congo  of  America. 

AMERICAN  SLA  VES  IX  LIBERIA. 

THE   very  slaves  upon  whom   we  have  trodden 
have   risen  above  us,  and   their   moral    supe- 
riority makes  our  conduct  ignominious.     Not  Euro- 


THOUGHTS.  137 

peans  only,  not  only  Arabians  and  Turks,  are 
emerging  from  the  inhumanity  and  the  enormities  of 
the  slave  traffic,  but  even  our  own  slaves,  trans- 
planted to  the  land  of  their  fathers,  are  raising 
barriers  against  the  spread  of  this  execrable  com- 
merce. On  the  shores  of  Africa  a  republic  is 
springing  up,  whose  inhabitants  were  transplanted 
from  this  Egypt  of  bondage.  And  now,  look  at 
the  government  which  these  slaves  and  descendants 
of  slaves  have  established,  and  contrast  it  Avith  our 
own.  They  discard  the  institution  of  slavery,  while 
we  cherish  it.  A  far  greater  proportion  of  their 
children  than  of  the  white  children  of  the  slave 
states  are  at  school.  In  the  metropolis  of  their 
nation,  their  flag  does  not  protect  the  slave  traffic, 
nor  wave  over  the  slave  mart.  Would  to  God  that 
the  very  opposite  of  this  were  not  true  of  our  own. 
.  .  .  The  very  race,  then,  which  were  first  stolen, 
brought  to  this  country,  despoiled  of  all  the  rights 
which  God  had  given  them,  and  kept  in  bondage 
for  generations,  at  last,  after  redeeming  themselves, 
or  being  restored  to  their  natural  liberty  in  some 
other  way,  have  crossed  the  ocean,  established  a 
government  for  themselves,  and  are  now  setting  us 
an  example  w^hich  should  cause  our  cheeks  to  blister 
w^ith  shame. 


138  THOUGHTS. 

SLAVERY  EXTEXSIOX. 

rilHERE  is  an  idea  often  introduced  into  Congress 
JL  and  elsewhere,  and  made  to  bear  against  any 
restriction  of  slavery,  or  any  amelioration  of  the 
condition  of  the  slave,  which  I  wish  to  consider. 
The  idea  is,  that  the  slaves  are  in  a  better  condition 
in  this  country  than  they  would  have  been  at  home. 
It  is  affirmed  that  they  are  brought  under  some 
degree  of  civilizing  and  humanizing  influences 
amongst  us  which  they  would  not  have  felt  in  the 
land  of  their  fathers. 

Let  us  look,  first,  at  the  philosophy  of  this  notion, 
and  then  at  its  morality.  All  those  who  use  this 
argument  as  a  defence  or  a  mitigation  of  the  evils 
of  slavery,  or  as  a  final  cause  for  its  existence, 
assume  that  if  the  present  three  million  slaves  who 
now  darken  our  southern  horizon,  and  fill  the  air 
with  their  groans,  had  not  been  here  in  their  present 
state  of  bondage,  they  would  have  been  in  Africa, 
in  a  state  of  paganism.  Now,  the  slightest  reflec- 
tion shows  that  this  assumption  has  no  basis  of 
truth.  Not  one  of  them  all  would  now  have  been 
in  existence,  if  their  ancestors  had  not  been  brought 
to  this  country.  And,  according  to  the  law  of  pop- 
ulation operative  among  barbarous  nations,  there  are 
now  just  as  many  inhabitants  —  pagans,  cannibals, 


THOUGHTS.  139 

or  what  you  please,  —  in  Africa,  as  there  would 
have  been  if  the  spoiler  had  never  entered  their 
home,  and  ravished  and  borne  them  into  bondage. 
.  .  .  How  infinitely  absurd  and  ridiculous  is  the 
plea  that  the  slaves  are  better  off  here  "  than  they 
would  have  heen  in  Africa "  /  Go  out  into  the 
streets  of  this  city  (Washington)  and  take  the  first 
one  you  meet ;  perhaps  he  is  a  mulatto.  But  for 
being  here,  he  would  have  been  a  mulatto  in  the 
middle  of  Africa — would  he?  Take  them  all, — 
mulatto,  mestizo,  Zambo,  and  all  "the  vast  variety 
of  man  "  so  far  as  color  is  concerned,  —  and  if  they 
had  not  existence  here  they  would  have  had  it  in 
Africa !  This  is  the  doctrine.  Would  they  have 
had  the  same  American  names  also  f  .  ,  .  The  idea, 
then,  of  sending  the  slaves  back  to  their  country  is 
an  egregious  fallacy. 

SLAVES  BETTER   OFF  HERE   THAN  IN  AFRICA. 

IF  the  ancestors  of  the  present  three  million 
slaves  had  never  been  brought  here,  —  if  their 
descendants  had  never  been  propagated  here,  for 
the  supposed  value  of  their  services,  their  places 
would  have  been  supplied  by  white  laborers  —  by 
men  of  the  Caucasian  race,  —  by  freemen.  Instead 
of  the  three  million  slaves,  of  all  colors,  we  should 


140  THOUGHTS. 

doubtless  now  have  at  least  three  million  white, 
freeboro  citizens,  adding  to  the  real  prosperity  of 
the  country,  and  to  the  power  of  the  republic.  If 
the  South  had  not  had  slaves  to  do  their  work  for 
them,  they  would  have  become  ingenious  and  inven- 
tive like  the  North,  and  would  have  enlisted  the 
vast  forces  of  Nature  in  their  service,  —  wind,  and 
fire,  and  water,  and  steam,  and  lightning,  the  mighty 
energies  of  gravitation  and  the  subtle  forces  of 
chemistry.  The  country  might  not  have  had  so 
gaudy  and  ostentatious  a  civilization  as  at  present, 
but  it  would  have  had  one  infinitely  more  pure  and 
sound. 

ALL  MEy  CREATED  EQUAL. 

I  HAVE  been  taught  from  my  earliest  childhood 
that  "  all  men  are  created  equal."  This  has 
become  to  me  not  merely  a  conviction  of  the  under- 
standing, but  a  sentiment  of  the  heart.  This 
maxim  is  my  principle  of  action,  whenever  I  am 
called  upon  to  act ;  and  it  rises  spontaneously  to  my 
contemplations  when  I  speculate  upon  human  duty. 
It  is  the  plainest  corollary  from  the  doctrine  of  the 
natural  equality  of  man,  that  when  I  see  a  man,  or 
a  class  of  men,  Avho  are  not  equal  to  myself  in 
opportunities,  in  gifts,  in  means  of  improvement,  or 


THOUGHTS.  141 

in  motives  and  incitements  to  an  elevated  character 
and  an  exemplary  life, — I  say,  it  is  the  plainest 
corollary  that  I  should  desire  to  elevate  those  men 
to  an  equality  with  myself. 

NO  EDUCATION  FOE   THE  SLAVE. 

OF  all  the  remorseless  and  wanton  cruelties  ever 
committed  in  this  world  of  wickedness  and 
woe,  I  hold  that  to  be  the  most  remorseless  and 
wanton  which  shuts  out  from  all  the  means  of 
instruction  a  being  whom  God  has  endued  with 
the  capacities  of  knowledge,  and  inspired  with  the 
divine  desire  to  know.  Strike  blossom  and  beauty 
from  the  vernal  season  of  the  year,  and  leave  it 
sombre  and  cheerless ;  annihilate  the  harmonies 
with  which  the  birds  of  spring  make  vocal  the  field 
and  the  forest,  and  let  exulting  Nature  become 
silent  and  desolate  ;  —  do  all  this,  if  you  will,  but 
Avithhold  your  profane  hand  from  those  creative 
sources  of  knowledge  which  shall  give  ever-renew- 
inf?  and  ever-increasing  deli^jht  through  all  the 
cycles  of  immortality,  and  which  have  the  power 
to  assimilate  the  finite  creature  more  and  more 
nearly  to  the  infinite  Creator. 


142  THOUGHTS. 

TEE   VALUE  OF  KNOWLEDGE   TO  EVERT  HUMAN 
BEING. 

HE  who  denies  to  children  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge  works  devilish  miracles.  If  a  man 
destroys  my  power  of  hearing,  it  is  precisely  the 
same  to  me  as  though,  leaving  my  faculty  of  hear- 
ing untouched,  he  had  annihilated  all  the  melodies 
and  harmonies  of  the  universe.  If  a  man  oblit- 
erates my  power  of  vision,  it  is  precisely  the  same 
to  me  as  though  he  had  blotted  out  the  light  of  the 
sun,  and  flung  a  pall  of  darkness  over  all  the  beau- 
ties of  the  earth  and  the  glories  of  the  Armament. 
So,  if  a  usurper  of  human  rights  takes  away  from 
a  child  the  faculties  of  knowledge,  or  the  means 
and  opportunities  to  know,  it  is  precisely  the  same 
to  that  child  as  though  all  the  beauties  and  the 
wonders,  all  the  magnificence  and  the  glory  of  the 
universe  itself  had  been  destroyed.  .  .  .  Just  so  far 
as  he  disables  and  incapacitates  them  from  know- 
ing, he  annihilates  the  object  of  knowledge ;  he 
obliterates  history  ;  he  destroys  the  countless  mate- 
rials in  the  natural  world  that  mif]fht,  through  the 
medium  of  the  useful  arts,  be  converted  into  human 
comforts  and  blessings  ;  he  suspends  the  sublime 
order  and  progression  of  Nature,  and  blots  out 
those  wonderful  relations  of  cause  and  effect  that 


THOUGHTS.  143 

belong  to  her  unchangeable  laws.  Nay,  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  such  an  impious  destroyer  of  knowl- 
edge may  be  said  to  annihilate  the  attributes  of  the 
Creator  himself,  for  he  does  annihilate  the  capacity 
of  forming  a  conception  of  that  Creator,  and  thus 
prevents  a  soul  that  was  created  in  the  image 
of  God  from  ever  receiving  the  image  it  was  cre- 
ated to  reflect. 

IGNORANCE  BREEDS  ERROR. 

HE  who  shuts  out  truth,  by  the  same  act  opens 
the  door  to  all  the  error  that  supplies  its 
place.  Ignorance  breeds  monsters  to  fill  up  all  the 
vacancies  of  the  soul  that  are  unoccupied  by  the 
verities  of  knowledge.  He  who  dethrones  the  idea 
of  law,  bids  chaos  welcome  in  its  stead.  Supersti- 
tion is  the  mathematical  complement  of  religious 
truth,  and  just  so  much  less  as  the  life  of  a  human 
being  is  reclaimed  to  good,  just  so  much  more  it  is 
delivered  over  to  evil.  The  man  or  the  institution, 
therefore,  that  withholds  knowledge  from  a  child 
or  from  a  race  of  children,  exercises  the  awful 
power  of  changing  the  world  in  which  they  live 
just  as  much  as  if  he  should  annihilate  all  that  is 
most  lovely  and  good  in  this  planet  of  ours,  or 
transport  the  victim  of  his   cruelty  to   some  dark 


144  THOUGHTS. 

and  frigid  zone  of  the  universe,  where  the  sweets 
of  knowledge  are  unknown,  and  the  terrors  of  igno- 
rance hold  their  undisputed  and  remorseless  reign. 

SLAVERY  IN  THE  CONSTITUTION. 

IN  regard  to  this  whole  matter  of  slavery,  the 
Constitution  touches  the  subject  with  an  avert- 
ed face.  The  abhorred  word  ^' slave"  is  no  where 
mentioned  in  it.  The  Constitution  is  ashamed  to 
utter  such  a  name.  The  country,  coming  fresh 
from  that  baptism  of  fire,  —  the  American  Revo- 
lution, —  would  not  profane  its  lips  with  this  un- 
hallowed word.  Hence  circumlocution  is  resorted 
to.  It  seeks  to  escape  a  guilty  confession.  Like  a 
culprit,  in  whom  some  love  of  character  still  sur- 
vives, it  speaks  of  its  offence  'svithout  calling  it  by 
name.  It  uses  the  reputable  and  honorable  word 
"per.so?2s,"  instead  of  the  accursed  word  ^^  slaves." 
As  the  Tyrian  queen,  about  to  perpetrate  a  deed 
which  would  consign  her  character  to  infamy, 
called  it  by  the  sacred  name  of  "  marriage,"  and 
committed  it,  —  ^^  Hoc  prceterit  nomine  culjpam" — 
so  the  Constitution,  about  to  recognize  the  most 
guilty  and  cruel  of  all  relations  between  man  and 
man,  sought  to  avert  its  eyes  from  the  act,  and 
to  pacify  the  remonstrances  of  conscience  against 


THOUGHTS.  145 

every  participation  in  the  crime,  by  hiding  the  deed 
under  a  reputable  word. 

CONGRESS  m  1849. 

ONE  of  the  prohibitions  of  the  Constitution  is, 
that  Congress  shall  pass  "  no  bill  of  attain- 
der." What  is  a  bill  of  attainder?  It  is  a  bill 
that  works  corruption  of  blood.  It  disfranchises 
its  object.  It  takes  away  from  him  the  common 
privileges  of  a  citizen.  It  makes  a  man  incapable 
of  acquiring,  inheriting,  or  transmitting  property ; 
incapable  of  holding  office,  or  acting  as  attorney  for 
others  ;  and  it  shuts  the  doors  of  the  courts  against 
him.  These  disabling  consequences  may  descend 
to  a  man's  children  after  him,  though  this  is  not 
necessary.  Now,  to  pass  such  a  bill  is  a  thing 
which  Congress  cannot  do.  But  when  Congress 
undertook  to  legalize  slavery  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, it  undertook  to  do  all  this,  and  worse  than 
all  this.  It  attainted,  not  individuals  merely,  but  a 
whole  race.  A  slave  is  an  outlaw ;  that  is,  he 
cannot  make  a  contract ;  he  cannot  prosecute  and 
defend  in  court ;  property  cannot  be  acquired  by 
him,  or  devised  to  him,  or  transmitted  through  him. 
A  white  man  may  give  his  testimony  against  him, 
but  he  cannot  give  his  testimony  against  a  white 
10 


146  THOUGHTS. 

man.  He  is  despoiled  of  his  liberam  legem  —  his 
birthright.  He  cannot  own  the  food  or  clothes  he 
has  earned.  What  is  his,  is  his  master's.  And 
this  corruption  of  blood,  which  the  law  of  slavery- 
works,  does  not  stop  with  the  first,  nor  with  the 
second  generation ;  not  with  the  tenth,  nor  the 
ten-thousandth  ;  but,  by  the  theory  of  the  law,  goes 
on  forever.  Bills  of  attainder,  during  the  history 
of  the  first  periods  of  the  world,  have  applied  to 
individuals  only,  or  at  most  to  a  family.  But  here, 
Congress,  in  defiance  of  the  Constitution,  has  un- 
dertaken to  establish  a  degraded  caste  in  society, 
and  to  perpetuate  it  through  all  generations.  Can 
any  reasonable  man  for  a  moment  suppose  that  the 
Constitution  meant  to  bar  Congress  from  passing 
acts  of  attainder  against  individuals,  but  to  permit 
it  to  pass  wholesale,  sweeping  laws,  working  dis- 
franchisement of  an  entire  race,  and  entailing 
degradation  forever  ? 

FREE-SOILISM.    1850. 

THE  term  "  Free-Soiler "  is  perpetually  used 
upon  this  floor  (of  Congress)  as  a  term  of  igno- 
miny and  reproach ;  yet  I  maintain  that  in  its 
original  and  legitimate  sense,  as  denoting  an  advo- 
cate of  the  doctrine  that   all  our   territorial   pes- 


THOUGHTS.  147 

sessions  should  be  consecrated  to  freedom,  there  is 
no  language  that  can  supply  a  more  honorable  ap- 
pellation. It  expresses  a  determination  on  the  part 
of  its  disciples  to  keep  free  the  territory  that  is  now 
free  ;  to  stand  upon  its  frontiers  as  the  cherubim 
stood  at  the  gates  of  Paradise,  with  a  flaming  sword 
to  turn  every  way,  to  keep  the  sin  of  slavery  from 
crossing  its  borders.  .  .  .  The  epithet  "  Free-Soil- 
er,"  therefore,  when  rightly  understood  and  cor- 
rectly applied,  implies  both  political  and  moral 
worth ;  and  I  covet  the  honor  of  its  application  to 
myself. 

SLA  VE-SOILISM. 

WHAT  does  the  term  "  Slave-Soiler "  signify? 
It  signifies  one  who  desires  and  designs  that 
all  soil  should  be  made  to  bear  slaves.  Its  dread- 
ful significancy  is,  that  after  Magna  Charta  and  the 
Petition  of  Right  in  Great  Britain,  and  after  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  in  this  country,  we 
should  cast  aside  with  scorn,  not  only  the  teachings 
of  Christianity,  but  the  clearest  principles  of  reli- 
gion and  natural  law,  and  should  retrograde  from 
our  boasted  civilization  into  the  Dark  Ages,  —  ay, 
into  periods  that  the  Dark  Ages  might  have  called 
dark.  It  means  that  this  Eepublic^  as  we  call  it, 
formed  to  establish  freedom,  should  enlist  in  a  cru- 
sade against  freedom. 


148  THOUGHTS. 

ABOLITIONISM. 

BEFORE  ^Ye  can  decide  upon  the  honor  or  the 
infamy  of  the  term  "Abolitionist,"  we  must 
know  what  things  they  are  which  he  proposes  to 
abolish.  We  of  the  North,  you  say,  are  abolition- 
ists ;  but  abolitionists  of  what?  Are  we  abolition- 
ists of  the  inalienable,  indefeasible,  indestructible 
rights  of  man?  Are  we  abolitionists  of  knowl- 
edge, abolitionists  of  virtue,  of  education,  and  of 
human  culture?  Do  we  seek  to  abolish  the  glo- 
rious moral  and  intellectual  attributes  which  God 
has  given  to  his  children,  and  thus,  as  far  as  it  lies 
in  our  power,  make  the  facts  of  slavery  conform  to 
the  law  of  slavery,  by  obliterating  the  distinction 
between  a  man  and  a  beast?  Do  our  laws  and  our 
institutions  seek  to  blot  out  and  abolish  the  image 
of  God  in  the  human  soul?  Do  we  abolish  the 
marriage  covenant?  Do  we  ruthlessly  tear  asun- 
der the  sacred  ties  of  affection  by  which  God  has 
bound  the  parent  to  the  child  and  the  child  to  the 
parent?  Do  we  seek  to  abolish  all  those  noble 
instincts  of  the  human  soul,,  by  Avhich  it  yearns  for  S^ 
improvement  and  progress?  and  do  we  quench  its 
sublimest  aspirations  after  knowledge  and  virtue? 
A  stranger  would  suppose,  from  hearing  the  epi- 
thets of  contumely  that  are  heaped  upon  us,  that 


THOUGHTS.  149 

we  were  abolitionists  of  all  truth,  purity,  knowl- 
edge, improvement,  civilization,  happiness,  and  holi- 
ness. On  this  subject,  perversion  of  language  and 
of  idea  has  been  reduced  to  a  system,  and  the  false- 
hoods of  our  calumniators  exclude  truth  with  the 
exactness  of  a  science.  If  we  are  abolitionists,  we 
are  abolitionists  of  human  bondage  ;  while  those 
who  oppose  us  are  abolitionists  of  human  liberty. 

SLAVERY  SANCTIO^^ED  BY  THE  LEVITICAL  LAW. 

I  MUST  express  the  most  energetic  dissent  from 
those  who  would  justify  modern  slavery  from 
the  Levitical  law.  My  reason  and  conscience  re- 
volt from  those  interpretations  which 

"  Torture  the  hallowed  pages  of  the  Bible 
To  sanction  crime,  and  robbery,  and  blood, 
And,  in  Oppression's  hateful  service,  libel 
Both  man  and  God." 

FREE  THOUGHT  IN  GALILEO'S  TIME. 

PRIESTS  appealed  to  the  Bible,  in  Galileo's 
time,  to  refute  the  truths  of  astronomy.  For 
more  than  two  hundred  years  the  same  ijlass  of 
men  appealed  to  the  same  authority  to  disprove 
the  science  of  geology.  And  now  this  authority  is 
cited,  not  to  disprove  a  law  of  physical  nature 
merely,  but   to    deny  a   great   law  of  the  human 


150  THOUGHTS. 

goul,  —  a  law  of  human  consciousness,  —  a  law  of 
God  written  upon  the  tablet  of  every  man's  heart, 
authenticating  and  attesting  his  title  to  freedom. 
Let  those  who  reverence  the  Bible  beware  how 
they  suborn  it  to  commit  this  treason  and  perjury 
against  the  sacred  rights  of  man  and  the  holy  law 
of  God.  Whatever  they  gain  for  the  support  of 
their  doctrine,  will  be  so  much  subtracted  from  the 
authority  of  the  Scriptures.  If  the  Bible  has 
crossed  the  Atlantic  to  spread  slavery  over  a  con- 
tinent where  it  was  not  known  before,  then  the 
Bible  is  a  book  of  death,  and  not  a  book  of  life. 

THE  FACT  OF  SLAVERT  AND  THE  LAW  OF  SLAVERY. 

IT  is  said  that  the  fact  of  slavery  always  precedes 
the  law  of  slavery  ;  that  law  does  not  go  before 
the  institution  that  creates  it,  but  comes  afterwards 
to  sanction  and  regulate  it.  But  this  is  no  more  true 
of  slavery  than  of  every  other  institution  among 
mankind,  whether  right  or  wrong.  Homicide  ex- 
isted before  laAv ;  the  law  came  in  subsequently, 
and  declared  that  he  who  took  an  innocent  man's 
life  without  law,  should  lose  his  own  by  law.  The 
law  came  in  to  regulate  homicide  ;  to  authorize  the 
taking  of  human  life  for  crime,  just  as  we  author- 
ize involuntary  servitude  for  crime  ;  and  it  may  just 


THOUGHTS.  151 

as  well  be  argued  that  murder  is  a  natural  right 
because  it  existed  before  law,  as  that  slavery  is  a 
natural  right  because  it  existed  before  law.  This 
argument  apjpeals  to  the  crime  ivhich  the  law  was 
enacted  to  prevent,  in  order  to  establish  the  supreme 
acy  of  the  crime  over  the  law  that  forbids  it, 

SLAVERY  SAyCTIONED  BY  THE  COXSTITUTIOIT. 

AS  to  the  argument  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  recognizes  slavery,  and  that, 
upon  the  cession  of  new  territories,  the  Constitution, 
by  some  magical  and  incomprehensible  elasticity, 
extends  itself  over  them,  and  carries  slavery  into 
them,  I  think  I  speak  with  all  due  respect  when  I 
say  it  does  not  come  up  to  the  dignity  of  a  sophism. 
...  It  would  have  been  a  much  more  plausible 
pretension,  when  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  and 
Florida  was  made,  that  the  Constitution  carried 
freedom  into  those  territories  ;  because  the  Consti- 
tution was  built  upon  the  basis  of  the  common  law, 
and,  in  terms,  adopts  the  common  law  for  its  legal 
processes  and  its  rules  of  judicial  interpretation  ; 
and  everybody  knows  that  there  is  no  principle 
more  dear  to  the  common  law  than  that  all  treaties, 
statutes,  and  customs  shall  be  construed  in  favor  of 
life  and  in  favor  of  liberty. 


152  THOUGHTS. 

GOOD  OPIXIOX  OF  OTHERS  IXFLUEXTIAL  FOR  GOOD. 

IN  his  "  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments,"  Adam 
Smith  maintains  that  it  is  the  judgment  of  men, 
—  the  opinion  of  the  bystanders,  — that  gives  us  the 
pleasure  of  being  approved,  or  the  pain  of  being 
disapproved,  on  account  of  our  conduct.  Now  in 
this  contest  between  the  North  and  the  South,  on 
this  subject  of  extending  slavery,  who  are  the  by- 
standers? They  are  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
earth.  We,  the  North  and  the  South,  are  contend- 
ing in  the  arena.  All  civilised  men  stand  around 
us.  They  are  a  ring  of  lookers  on.  It  is  an 
august  spectacle.  It  is  a  larger  assemblage  than 
ever  witnessed  any  other  struggle  in  the  history  of 
mankind  ;  and  their  shouts  of  approbation  or  hisses 
of  scorn  are  worthy  of  our  heed.  They  are  now 
looking  on  with  disgust  and  abhorrence.  They 
groan,  they  mock,  they  hiss.  The  brightest  pages 
of  their  literature  portray  us  as  covered  with 
badges  of  dishonor ;  their  orators  hold  up  our 
purposes  as  objects  for  the  execration  of  mankind ; 
their  wits  hurl  the  lightnings  of  satire  at  our 
leaders ;  their  statute  books  abound  in  laws  in 
which  institutions  like  ours  are  branded  as  crimes  ; 
their  moralists,  from  their  high  and  serene  seats  of 
justice,  arraign  and  condemn  us  ;  their  theologians 
find  our  doom  of  retribution  in  the  oracles  of  God. 


THOUGHTS.  153 


DISUNION. 


THREATS  of  dissolution,  if  executed,  become 
rebellion  and  treason.  The  machinery  of  this 
government  is  now  moving  onward  in  its  majestic 
course.  Should  the  hand  of  violence  be  laid  upon 
it,  then  will  come  that  exigency,  expressly  provided 
for  in  the  Constitution,  and  in  the  President's  inau- 
gural  oath,     "  TO   TAKE    CAEE   THAT    THE    LAWS    BE 

FAITHFULLY  EXECUTED."  Such  collision  would  be 
war.  Such  forcible  opposition  to  government  would 
be  treason.  Its  agents  and  abettors  would  be 
traitors.  Wherever  this  rebellion  rears  its  crest, 
martial  law  will  be  proclaimed ;  and  those  found 
with  hostile  arms  in  their  hands  must  prepare  for 
for  the  felon's  doom. 

I  cannot  contemplete  this  spectacle  without  a 
thrill  of  horror.  If  the  two  sections  of  this  country 
ever  marshal  themselves  against  each  other,  and 
their  squadrons  rush  to  the  conflict,  it  will  be  a  war 
carried  on  by  such  powers  of  intellect,  animated  by 
such  vehemence  of  passion,  and  sustained  by  such 
an  abundance  of  resources,  as  the  world  has  never 
before  witnessed.   .  .   . 

And  what  is  the  object  for  which  we  are  willing 
to  make  this  awful  sacrifice?  Is  it  to  redeem  a 
realm  to  freedom  ?     No  !  but  to  subjugate  a  realm 


154  THOUGHTS. 

to  slavery.     Is  it  to  defend  the  rights  of  man  ?  No  ! 
but  to  abolish  the  rights  of  man. 

FREEDOM  IX  THE   TERRITORIES. 

WITH  every  philanthropic  Northern  man,  a 
collateral  motive  for  keeping  the  new  territo- 
ries free,  is,  that  they  may  be  a  land  of  hope  and 
promise  to  the  poor  man,  to  whichever  of  all  our 
states  he  belong,  where  he  may  go  and  find  a  home 
and  a  homestead  and  abundance.  But  the  South, 
in  attempting  to  open  these  territories  to  the 
slaveholders,  would  give  them  to  the  rich  alone,  — 
would  give  them  to  less  than  three  hundred  thou- 
sand persons  out  of  a  population  of  six  millions. 
The  interests  of  the  poorer  classes  at  the  South  all 
demand  free  territory,  where  they  can  go  and  rise 
at  once  to  an  equality  with  their  fellow-citizens, 
which  they  can  never  do  at  home.  They  are  nat- 
ural abolitionists,  and  unless  blinded  by  ignorance, 
or  overawed  by  their  social  superiors,  they  will  so 
declare  themselves. 

LEADING  MEN  RESPONSIBLE   TO   THE  COMMUNITY, 

THE  leading  minds  in  a  community  are  mainly 
responsible  for  the  fortunes  of  that  community. 
Under  God,  the  men  of  education,  of  talent,  and  of 


THOUGHTS.  155 

attainment,  turn  the  tides  of  human  affairs.  Where 
great  social  distinctions  exist,  the  iutelh'gence  and 
the  weahh  of  a  few  stimulate  or  suppress  the  voli- 
tion of  the  masses.  They  are  the  sensorium  of 
the  body  politic,  and  their  social  inferiors  are  the 
mighty  limbs,  which,  for  good  or  for  evil,  they  wield. 
Such  is  the  relation  in  which  the  three  hundred 
thousand,  or  less  than  three  hundred  thousand 
slave-owners  of  the  South  hold  their  fellow-citizens. 
They  can  light  the  torch  of  civil  Avar,  or  they  can 
quench  it.  But  if  civil  war  once  blazes  forth,  it  is 
not  given  to  mortal  wisdom  to  extinguish  or  control 
it.  It  comes  under  other  and  mightier  laws,  under 
other  and  mightier  agencies.  Human  passions  feed 
the  combustion  ;  and  the  fire  which  the  breath  of 
man  has  kindled,  the  passions  of  the  multitude  — 
stronger  than  the  breath  of  the  hurricane  —  will 
spread.  Among  those  passions,  one  of  the  strongest 
and  boldest  is  the  love  of  liberty,  which  dwells  in 
every  bosom.  In  the  educated  and  civilized,  this 
love  of  liberty  is  a  regulated,  but  paramount  desire  ; 
in  the  ignorant  and  debased,  it  is  a  wild,  vehement 
instinct.  It  is  an  indestructible  part  of  the  nature 
of  man.  Weakened  it  may  be,  but  it  cannot  be 
destroyed.  It  is  a  thread  of  asbestos  in  the  web  of 
the  soul,  which  all  the  fires  of  oppression  cannot 
consume. 


156  THOUGHTS. 

SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE. 

THERE  is  one  hazard  which  the  South  invokes 
and  defies,  which  to  her  high-minded  and  honor- 
loving  sons,  should  be  more  formidable  than  all  the 
rest.  She  is  defying  the  spirit  of  the  age.  She  is 
not  only  defying  the  judgment  of  contemporaries, 
but  invoking  upon  herself  the  execrations  of  pos- 
terity. Mark  the  progress  in  the  public  sentiment 
of  Christendom,  within  the  last  few  centuries,  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  and  the  rights  of  man.  After 
the  discovery  of  this  continent  by  Columbus,  the 
ecclesiastics  of  Spain  held  councils  to  discuss  the 
question,  whether  the  aborigines  of  this  country  had 
or  had  not  souls  to  be  saved.  They  left  this  ques- 
tion undecided  ;  but  they  said,  as  it  was  possible 
that  the  nations  of  the  New  World  might  have  an 
immortal  spirit,  they  would  send  them  the  gospel, 
so  as  to  be  on  the  safe  side  ;  and  the  mission  of  Las 
Casas  was  the  result. 

NEW  MEXICO. 

ALL  that  part  of  New  Mexico  which  Texas 
claims,  and  which  lies  between  the  parallels 
36°  30'  and  42^"  is,  by  the  resolutions  of  annexa- 
tion, to  be  forever  free.  Mr.  Clay's  compromise 
proposes  to  buy  this  territory,  so  secured  to  freedom, 


THOUGHTS.  157 

and  annex  it  to  New  Mexico,  which  is  to  be  left 
open  for  slavery.  We  are  to  peril  all  the  broad 
region  between  36°  30'  and  42°,  and  pay  Texas  some 
six  or  eight  millions  of  dollars  for  the  privilege  of 
doing  so  !  Mr.  Clay  is  not  less  eminent  for  his 
statesmanship  than  for  his  waggery.  Were  he  to 
succeed  in  playing  off  this  practical  joke  upon  the 
North,  and  were  it  not  for  the  horrible  consequences 
which  it  would  involve,  a  roar  of  laughter,  like  a 
feu-de-joie^  would  run  down  the  course  of  ages. 
As  it  is,  the  laughter  will  be  "  elsewhere." 


M"; 


MR.   CLAY'S  COMPROMISES. 

CLAY'S  last  point  is  too  facetious.  So 
J_?J-  solemn  a  subject  does  not  permit  such  long- 
continued  levity,  however  it  may  be  marked  by 
sobriety  of  countenance.  It  is,  that  Congress  shall 
make  more  effectual  provision  for  the  capture  and 
delivery  of  fugitive  slaves  ;  and,  as  an  equivalent 
for  this,  it  shall  bind  itself  never  to  interfere  with 
the  inter-state  traffic  in  slaves.  We  are  to  catch 
the  slaves  of  the  South,  and,  as  though  this  were  a 
gi-ateful  privilege  to  us,  we  are  to  allow  them  free 
commerce  in  slaves,  coastwise  or  inland.  By  this 
means,  slaves  can  be  transported  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Rio  Grande,  and  some  hundreds  of  miles  up 


158  THOUGHTS. 

that  river,  towards  New  Mexico,  instead  of  being 
driven  in  coffles  across  the  country.  The  compro- 
mise is,  that  for  every  slave  w^e  catch,  we  are 
to  facilitate  the  passage  of  a  hundred  into  New 
Mexico.  These  are  such  compromises  as  the  w^olf 
ofi'ers  to  the  lamb,  or  the  vulture  to  the  dove. 

WILMOT  PROVISO. 

MR.  WEBSTER  casts  away  the  Proviso  alto- 
gether. He  says,  ^^  If  a  resolution  or  a  law 
were  now  hefore  us  to  provide  a  territorial  govern- 
ment for  New  Mexico^  I  would  not  vote  to  put  any 
prohibition  into  it  whatever."  The  reason  given  is, 
that  slavery  is  already  excluded  from  "California 
and  New  Mexico"  ''by  the  law  of  nature,  of 
physical  geography,  the  law  of  the  formation  of 
the  earth."  *'  California  and  New  Mexico  are 
Asiatic  in  their  formation  and  scenery.  They  are 
composed  of  vast  ranges  of  mountains  of  enormous 
height,  with  broken  ridges  and  deep  valleys." 

Now  this  is  drawing  moral  conclusions  from 
physical  premises.  It  is  arguing  from  physics  to 
metaphysics.  It  is  determining  the  law  of  the 
spirit  by  geographical  phenomena.  It  is  under- 
taking to  settle  by  mountains  and  rivers,  and  not 
by  the   ten    commandments,    a  great   question   of 


THOUGHT  S  .  159 

human  duty.  It  abandons  the  second  command- 
ment of  Christ  and  all  bills  of  rights  enacted  in 
conformity  thereto,  and  leaves  our  obligations  to 
our  neighbor  to  be  determined  by  the  accidents  of 
earth  and  water  and  air.  To  ascertain  whether 
people  will  obey  the  divine  command,  and  do  to 
others  as  they  would  be  done  by,  it  looks  at  the 
thermometer.  What  a  problem  would  this  be : 
"  Required,  the  height  above  the  level  of  the  sea  at 
which  the  oppressor  will  undo  the  heavy  burden 
and  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  and  break  every 
yoke,  —  to  be  determined  barometrically."  Alas  ! 
this  cannot  be  done.  Slavery  depends,  not  upon  cli- 
mate, but  upon  conscience.  Wherever  the  wicked 
passions  of  the  human  heurt  can  go,  there  slavery 
can  go.  Slavery  is  an  effect.  Avarice,  sloth, 
pride,  and  the  love  of  domination,  are  its  cause. 
In  ascending  mountains,  at  what  altitude  do  men 
leave  their  consciences  behind  them?  Different 
vegetable  growths  are  to  be  found  at  different 
heights,  depending  also  upon  the  zone.  This  I 
can  understand.  There  is  the  altitude  of  the  palm, 
the  altitude  of  the  oak,  the  altitude  of  the  pine, 
and,  far  above  them  all,  the  line  of  perpetual  snow. 
But,  in  regard  to  innocence  and  guilt,  where  is  the 
white  line  f     There  are  to-day  forty-eight  millions 


160  THOUGHTS. 

of  slaves  in  Russia,  not  one  rood  of  which  comes 
down  so  low  as  the  northern  boundary  of  Cali- 
fornia and  New  Mexico. 

EXTEXSIOX  OF  SLAVERY. 

WHILE  I  utterly  deny  the  claim  set  up  by 
the  South,  yet  I  would  gladly  consent  that 
my  southern  fellow-citizens  should  go  to  the  terri- 
tories and  carry  there  every  kind  of  property  which 
I  can  carry.  I  would  then  give  to  the  Southern 
States  their  full  share  of  all  the  income  ever  to  be 
derived  from  the  sales  of  the  public  lands,  or  the 
leasing  of  the  public  mines  ;  and  whatever,  after 
this  deduction,  was  left  in  the  public  treasury, 
should  be  appropriated  for  the  whole  nation,  as  has 
been  the  practice  heretofore.  That  is,  in  conse- 
quence of  excluding  slavery  from  the  territories, 
I  would  give  the  South  a  double  share,  or  even  a 
three-fold  share,  of  all  the  income  that  may  ever 
be  derived  from  them.  Pecuniary  surrenders  I 
would  gladly  make  for  the  sake  of  peace,  but  not 
for  peace  itself  would  I  surrender  liberty. 

MASSACHUSETTS  CONSENT  TO  SLAVERY! 

THE  idea  that  Massachusetts  should  contribute 
or  consent  to  the  extension  of  human  slavery ! 
—  is  it  not  enough,  not  merely  to  arouse  the  livin» 


THOUGHTS.  161 

from  their  torpor,  but  the  dead  from  their  graves  ? 
Were  I  to  help  this,  nay,  did  I  not  oppose  it  with 
all  the  powers  and  faculties  which  God  has  given 
me,  I  should  see  myriads  of  agonized  faces  glaring 
out  upon  me  from  the  future,  more  terrible  than 
Duncan's  at  Macbeth,  and  I  would  rather  feel  au 
assassin's  poniard  in  my  breast  than  forever  here- 
after to  see  the  "air-drawn  dagger"  of  a  guilty 
memory.  In  Massachusetts  the  great  drama  of  the 
Revolution  began.  Some  of  the  heroes  yet  survive 
amongst  us.  At  Lexington,  and  at  Bunker  Hill, 
the  grass  still  grows  greener  where  the  soil  was 
fattened  by  the  blood  of  our  fathers.  If,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  we  must  be  vanquished  in  this 
contest,  let  it  be  by  force  of  the  overmastering  and 
inscrutable  powers  above  us,  and  not  by  our  own 
base  desertion. 

Mli.    WEBSTER  APPEALS   TO  HIGHER  AUTHORITY. 


M 


R.  WEBSTER  advises  me,  in  a  certain  con- 
-JX  tingency,  "  to  appeal  to  that  higher  authority 
which  sits  enthroned  above  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws."  I  take  no  exception  to  this  counsel 
because  of  its  officiousness,  but  would  thank  him 
for  it.  My  ideas  of  duty  require  mc  to  seek  anx- 
iously for  the  true  interpretation  of  the  Constitu- 
11 


162  THOUGHTS. 

tioD,  and  then  to  abide  by  it,  unswayed  by  hopes 
or  fears.  If  the  Constitution  requires  me  to  do 
any  thing  which  my  sense  of  duty  forbids,  I  shall 
save  my  conscience  by  resigning  my  office.  I  am 
free,  however,  to  say,  that  if  in  the  discharge  of 
my  political  duties,  I  should  adopt  Mr.  Webster's 
ironical  advice,  1  should  go  to  the  power  "  which 
sits  enthroned  above,"  rather  than  descend  to  that 
opposite  realm  whence  the  bill  he  so  cordially  prom- 
ised to  support  (Fugitive  Slave  bill)  must  have 
emerged. 

TRIAL  BY  JURY. 

IT  is  perfectly  well  known  to  every  student  of  the 
Constitution,  that  the  only  reason  why  that  in- 
strument did  not  make  express  provision  for  the  trial 
by  jury  in  civil  cases,  was  the  difficulty  of  running 
the  dividing  line  between  the  many  cases  that  should 
be  so  tried,  and  the  few  that  should  not.  All  were 
agreed  that  ninety-nine  per  cent,  of  all  civil  cases 
should  be  tried  by  jury  ;  but  they  could  not  agree 
upon  the  classes  of  cases  from  which  the  one 
remaining  per  cent,  should  be  taken. 

SLAVERY  "  THE  SUM  OF  ALL    VILL ANTES.'' 

JOHN  WESLEY,  who  had  lived  amid  slavery, 
denominates  it  the  "  sum  of  all  villanies."    And 


THOUGHTS.  163 

if  Christ  came  into  this  world  and  left  it,  without 
permeating  and  saturating  all  his  teachings  with 
injunctions  against  the  injustice,  cruelty,  pride, 
avarice,  lust,  love  of  domination,  and  love  of  adu- 
lation, which  are  the  inseparable  accompaniments 
of  slavery,  then  I  think  the  Christian  world  will 
cry  out,  that  so  far  as  this  life  is  concerned,  his 
mission  was  substantially  fruitless. 

'*  O  star-eyed  Science  !  hast  thou  wandered  there, 
To  bring  us  back  those  tidings  of  despair? " 

So,  if  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  con- 
tains not  even  any  implied  security  for  the  liberty 
of  all  the  colored  population  in  the  free  states  and 
territories,  and  for  the  trial  by  jury  as  the  only  ade- 
quate means  of  securing  that  liberty,  then  would  it 
not  be  more  creditable  to  its  framers  never  to  have 
put  their  signatures  to  it? 

SLAVERY  EXTENSION. 

SUCH  is  my  solemn  and  abiding  conviction  of 
the  character  of  slavery,  that  under  a  full 
sense  of  my  responsibility  to  God,  I  deliberately 
say,  better  disunion,  —  better  a  civil  or  a  servile 
war,  —  better  any  thing  that  God  in  his  provi- 
dence shall  send,  than  an  extension  of  the  bounds 
of  slavery. 


1C4  THOUGHTS. 

SLA  FEET  OR  FREEDOM! 

WHICH  is  of  the  greater  importance,  that  the 
owner  should  recover  his  slave,  or  that  the 
citizen  should  retain  his  freedom  ?  I  answer  accord- 
ing to  the  language  which  the  criminal  law  uses 
respecting  guilt  and  innocence,  that  it  is  better  that 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine,  that  is,  an  indefinite 
number  of  slaves  should  escape,  than  that  one  free- 
man should  be  delivered  into  bondage. 

'^ PEXXSYLVANIA'S    WRONGS.'' 

MR.  WEBSTER  holds  Massachusetts  up  to  the 
ridicule  of  the  world,  because,  as  he  says, 
she  "  grows  fervid  on  Pennsylvania's  wrongs ; " 
and  he  has  deemed  it  his  duty  to  inquire  how  many 
seizures  of  fugitive  slaves  have  occurred  in  New 
England  within  our  time.  Is  this  the  Christian 
standard  by  which  to  estimate  the  evil  of  enact- 
ments upon  the  most  sacred  rights  of  men?  If  I 
repose  in  contentment  and  indifference,  because  my 
own  section,  or  state,  or  county  is  as  yet  but  a 
partial  sufferer,  why  should  I  not  continue  con- 
tented and  indifferent  while  I  myself  am  safe  ?  In 
providing  for  the  liberties  of  the  citizen,  under  a 
common  government,  I  think  Massachusetts  wor- 
thy of  all  honor  and  not  of  ridicule,  because  she 


THOUGHTS.  165 

does  "  grow  fervid  on  Pennsylvania's  wrongs," 
and  on  the  wrongs  of  an  entire  race,  whether  in 
Pennsylvania  or  California,  or  anywhere  within 
the  boundaries  of  our  own  country.  I  see  no 
reason  why  my  sympathies  as  a  man,  or  the  obliga- 
tions of  my  oath  as  an  officer,  in  regard  to  the 
nearer  or  the  remoter  states,  should  be  inversely  as 
the  squares  of  the  distances.  Even  with  regard  to 
foreign  countries,  did  Mr.  Webster  think  so  in 
those  better  days,  when  his  eloquent  appeal  for 
oppressed  and  bleeding  Greece  roused  the  nation 
like  the  clarion  ?  Did  Mr.  Webster  deem  it  neces- 
sary to  make  inquisitions  through  all  the  New 
England  States,  to  learn  how  many  Hungarian 
patriots  they  had  seen  shot  at  the  tap  of  the  drum, 
or  how  many  noble  Hungarian  women  had  been 
stripped  and  whipped  in  their  market-places,  before 
he  thrilled  the  heart  of  the  nation  at  the  wrongs  of 
Kossuth  and  his  compatriots,  and  invoked  the  exe- 
crations of  the  Avorld  upon  the  Austrian  and  Rus- 
sian despots?  I  see  no  diiference  between  these 
cases,  which  is  not  in  favor  of  our  home  interests^ 
of  our  own  domestic  rigliU^  except  the  difference  of 
their  bearing  upon  partisan  politics  and  presidential 
rivalries. 


166  THOUGHTS. 

MORAL  EARTHQUAKES. 

THERE  is  a  spot  near  the  Mississippi  River 
famous  for  the  frequeocy  of  its  earthquakes. 
A  gentleman  who  visited  there  some  years  ago, 
told  me  that  soon  after  entering  a  hotel,  at  a  place 
called  New  Madrid,  his  attention  was  suddenly 
arrested  by  the  rattling  of  the  crockery,  the  jarring 
of  the  household  furniture,  and  the  shaking  of  the 
chair  in  which  he  sat.  Starting  up  in  trepidation, 
he  sprang  for  the  door.  "  O,"  said  his  landlord, 
"  don't  be  alarmed.  It  is  nothing  hut  an  earth- 
quake." These  phenomena,  it  seems,  had  become 
so  common  as  to  have  lost  their  power  of  exciting 
alarm.  So,  I  fear,  it  is  in  regard  to  the  late  com- 
motions in  Europe,  and  especially  in  regard  to 
some  of  the  marvellous  doin^js  of  Congress  in  our 
own  country.  From  their  astounding  character, 
and  their  rapid  succession,  I  fear  we  are  becoming 
insensible  to  their  importance,  like  the  inhabitants 
who  dwell  at  the  base  of  Mount  ^tna,  whom 
neither  the  rumbling  of  the  mountain,  nor  the  lava 
rivers  which  pour  down  its  side,  can  awake  from 
their  stupor,  until,  like  Pompeii  or  Herculaneum, 
they  are  buried  in  the  ruins. 


THOUGHTS.  167 

MORE  SUGAR-PLUMS. 

THIS  surrendering  to  the  threat  of  disunion  is 
like  tl^e  foolish  mother  who  gave  her  boy  a 
sugar-plum  to  stop  his  swearing.  Presently  he 
belched  out  a  stream  of  profanity  ;  and  when  the 
mother  asked  him  why  he  did  so,  he  said,  "  I  want 
more  sugar-plums."  General  Taylor  embraced  the 
'whole  subject  in  a  short  sentence,  when  he  said  he 
was  more  afraid  of  Texan  bonds  than  of  Texan 
bayonets.  Their  bonds  have  been  ten  thousand 
times  more  powerful  than  their  bayonets  in  con- 
summating this  disastrous  compromise. 

PARTY  DICTATION. 

PERHAPS  I  do  not  know  what  I  was  made  for ; 
but  one  thing  I  certainly  never  Avas  made  for, 
and  that  is,  to  put  principles  on  and  off,  at  the 
dictation  of  a  party,  as  a  lackey  changes  his  livery 
at  his  master's  command. 

COMMERCE  AND   FREEDOM. 

ONE  objection  made  to  my  position  is,  that  I 
regard  the  question  of  the  extension  of  slavery 
into  our  territories  as  paramount  to  those  questions 
of  a  pecuniary  character,  on  which  we  desire  to  ob- 
tain the  favorable  notice  of  our  government.     Let 


168  THOUGHTS. 

this  objection  against  me  have  its  full  force.  I  ad- 
mit it,  in  all  its  full  length  and  breadth.  I  do 
regard  the  question  of  human  freedom  for.  our  wide- 
extended  territories,  with  all  the  public  and  private 
consequences  dependent  upon  it,  both  now  and  in  all 
futurity,  as  first,  foremost,  chiefest  among  all  the 
questions  that  have  been  before  the  government,  or 
are  likely  to  be  before  it.  When  temporary  and 
commercial  interests  are  put  in  competition  with 
the  enduring  and  unspeakably  precious  interests  of 
freedom  for  a  whole  race,  of  liberty  for  a  whole 
country,  and  of  obedience  to  the  will  of  the  Creator, 
my  answer  is,  "  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God 
and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall  be 
added  unto  you." 

DUTIES   OF  REPUBLICS. 

HOW  obvious  it  is  that  we  stand  in  the  same 
relation  to  posterity  that  our  ancestors  do  to 
us.  And,  as  we  boldly  summon  our  forefathers  to 
our  tribunal  for  adjudication  upon  their  conduct,  so 
will  our  conduct  be  brought  into  judgment  by  our 
successors.  Each  generation  has  duties  of  its  own 
to  perform  ;  and  our  duties,  though  widely  different 
from  theirs,  are  not  less  important  in  their  charac- 
ter, or  less  binding   in   their    obligation^;.      It  was 


THOUGHTS.  169 

their  duty  to  found  or  establish  our  institutions,  and 
nobly  did  they  perform  it.  It  is  our  duty  to  perfect 
and  perpetuate  these  institutions  ;  and  the  most  sol- 
emn question  which  can  be  propounded  to  this  age 
is,  are  we  performing  it  nobly?  Shall  posterity 
look  back  npon  our  present  rulers,  as  w^e  look  back 
upon  Arnold,  or  as  we  look  back  upon  Washington  ? 
Shall  posterity  look  back  upon  us,  as  we  look  back 
upon  the  recreants  who  sought  to  make  "Washington 
Dictator,  and  would  have  turned  those  arms  against 
their  country,  which  had  been  put  into  their  hands 
to  save  her  ?  —  or  shall  posterity  look  back  upon  us 
with  the  heart-throbbings,  the  tears,  and  passionate 
admiration  wuth  which  we  regard  the  Saviour-like 
martyrs,  w^ho,  for  our  welfare,  in  lonely  dungeons 
and  prison-ships,  breathing  a  noisome  atmosphere, — 
their  powerful  and  robust  frames  protracting  their 
tortures  beyond  the  common  endurance  of  nature,  — 
and  when  the  minions  of  power  came  round,  day 
after  day,  and  offered  them  life,  and  freedom,  and  a 
glad  return  to  the  upper  air  if  they  would  desert 
their  country's  cause  —  refused  and  died? 

IT  has  long  seemed  to  me  that  it  would  be  more 
honorable  to  our  ancestors,  to  praise  them    in 
words   less,  but    in    deeds    to  imitate    them   more. 


170  THOUGHTS. 

If  from  their  realms  of  blessedness  they  could  ad- 
dress us,  would  they  not  say,  "Prove  the  sincerity 
of  your  words  by  imitating  the  examples  you  profess 
to  admire.  The  inheritance  we  left  you  is  worth- 
less, unless  you  have  inherited  the  spirit  also  by 
which  it  was  acquired.  The  boon  we  would  be- 
queath to  the  latest  posterity,  can  never  reach  and 
bless  them,  save  through  your  hands.  In  these 
spiritual  abodes,  whence  all  disturbing  passions  are 
excluded,  where  all  i'usions  are  purged  from  our 
eyes,  we  can  neither  be  beguiled  nor  flattered  by 
lip-service.  Deeds  are  the  only  language  we  under- 
stand ;  and  one  act  of  self-sacrifice  for  the  welfare 
of  mankind  is  more  acceptable  to  us  than  if  you 
should  make  every  mountain  and  hill-top  a  temple 
to  hallow  our  names,  and  gather  thither  the  whole 
generation  as  worshippers." 

TRUSTS,  responsibilities,  interests,  vaster  in 
amount,  more  sacred  in  character  than  ever 
before  in  the  providence  of  God  were  committed  to 
any  people,  have  been  committed  to  us.  The  great 
experiment  of  Eepublicanism  —  of  the  capacity  of 
man  for  self-government  —  is  to  be  tried  anew, 
which,  wherever  it  has  been  tried,  —  in  Greece,  in 
Rome,  in  Italy,  —  has  failed,  through  an  incapacity 


THOUGHTS.  171 

in  the  people  to  enjoy  liberty  without  abusing  it. 
Another  trial  is  to  be  made,  whether  mankind  will 
enjoy  more  and  suffer  less,  under  the  ambition  and 
rapacity  of  an  irresponsible  parliament,  or  of  irre- 
sponsible parties  ;  —  under  an  hereditary  sovereign, 
who  must,  at  least,  prove  his  right  to  destroy,  by 
showing  his  birth,  or  under  mobs,  which  are  like 
wild  beasts,  that  prove  their  right  to  devour  by 
showing  their  teeth.  A  vacant  continent  is  here  to 
be  filled  up  with  innumerable  millions  of  human 
beings,  who  may  be  happy  through  our  wisdom,  but 
must  be  miserable  through  our  folly.  Religion  — 
the  ark  of  God  —  which,  of  old  times,  was  closed 
that  it  might  not  be  profaned  —  is  here  thrown  open 
to  all,  whether  Christian,  Jew,  or  Pagan  ;  and  yet 
is  to  be  guarded  from  desecration  and  sacrilege,  lest 
we  perish  with  a  deeper  perdition  than  ever  befell 
any  other  people. 

SELF'  G  0  VEENMENT. 

WITH  the  heroes,  and  sages,  and  martyrs  of 
former  days,  I  believe  in  the  capability  of 
.man  for  self-government  —  my  whole  soul  thereto 
most  joyously  consenting.  Nay,  if  there  be  any 
heresy  among  men,  or  blasphemy  against  God,  at 
which  the  philosopher  might  be  allowed  to  forget 


172  THOUGHTS. 

his  equanimity,  and  the  Christian  his  charity,  it 
is  the  heresy  and  the  blasphemy  of  believing  and 
avowing  that  the  infinitely  good  and  all-wise  Au- 
thor of  the  universe  persists  in  creating  and  sustain- 
ing a  race  of  beings,  who,  by  a  law  of  their  nature, 
are  forever  doomed  to  suffer  all  the  atrocities  and 
agonies  of  misgovernment,  either  from  the  hands  of 
others,  or  from  their  own.  The  doctrine  of  the 
inherent  and  necessary  disability  of  mankind  for  self- 
government  should  be  regarded,  not  simply  -with 
denial,  but  mth  execration.  To  sweep  so  foul  a 
creed  from  the  precincts  of  truth,  and  utterly  to 
consume  it,  rhetoric  should  become  a  whirlwind, 
and  logic  fire. 

THE   VOTIXG  DAY. 

ON  one  of  those  oft-recurring  days,  when  the  fate 
of  the  State  or  the  Union  is  to  be  decided  at 
the  polls  ;  —  when,  over  all  the  land,  the  votes  are 
falling  thick  as  hail,  and  we  seem  to  hear  them 
rattle  like  the  clangor  of  arms  ;  —  is  it  not  enough 
to  make  the  lover  of  his  country  turn  pale,  to  reflect 
upon  the  motives  under  which  they  may  be  given, 
and  the  consequences  to  which  they  may  lead  ?  By 
the  votes  of  a  few  wicked  men,  or  even  of  one 
wicked  man,  honorable  men  may  be  hurled   from 


THOUGHTS.  173 

oflBice,  and  miscreauts  elevated  to  their  places  ;  use- 
ful offices  abolished,  and  sinecures  created ;  the 
public  wealth,  which  had  supported  industry,  squan- 
dered upon  mercenaries  ;  enterprise  crippled  —  the 
hammer  falling  from  every  hand,  the  wheel  stopping 
in  every  mill,  the  sail  dropping  to  the  mast  on  every 
sea — and  thus  capital,  which  had  been  honestly  and 
laboriously  accumulated,  turned  into  dross; — in 
fine,  the  whole  policy  of  the  government  may  be  re- 
versed, and  the  social  condition  of  millions  change'd, 
to  gratify  one  man's  grudge,  or  prejudice,  or  re- 
venge. In  a  word,  if  the  votes  which  fall  so  copi- 
ously into  the  ballot-box,  on  our  days  of  election, 
emanate  from  wise  counsels  and  a  loyalty  to  truth, 
they  will  descend,  like  benedictions  from  Heaven, 
to  bless  the  land  and  fill  it  with  song  and  gladness  — 
such  as  have  never  been  kno^vn  upon  earth  since  the 
days  of  Paradise. 

CHANGE  OF  MEASVRES. 

WITH  the  change  in  the  organic  structure  of 
our  government,  there  should  have  been 
corresponding  changes  in  all  public  measures,  and 
institutions.  About  the  expediency,  and  especially 
about  the  extent  of  that  change,  a  wide  difference 
of  opinion  prevailed.     But,  the  change  being  made, 


174  THOUGHTS. 

was  it  not  the  duty  of  its  opponents  to  yield  to 
the  inevitable  course  of  events,  and  to  prepare  for 
coming  exigencies?  And  could  not  every  really 
noble  soul  find  an  ample  compensation  for  the  loss 
of  personal  influence  or  family  distinction,  in  the 
greater  dignity  and  elevation  of  his  fellow-beings? 
From  whom  should  instruction  come,  if  not  from 
the  most  educated?  Where  should  generosity  to- 
Avards  the  poor  begin,  if  not  with  those  whom  Prov- 
itlence  had  blessed  with  abundance  ?  Whence  should 
magnanimity  proceed,  if  not  from  minds  expanded 
by  culture  ?  If  there  were  an  order  of  men  who  lost 
something  of  patrician  rank  by  this  political  change, 
instead  of  holding  themselves  aloof  from  the  people, 
they  should  have  walked  among  them  as  Plato  and 
Socrates  did  among  their  contemporaries,  and  ex- 
pounded to  them  the  nature  and  the  vastness  of  the 
work  they  had  undertaken  to  do  ;  nay,  if  need  were, 
they  should  have  draiaed  the  poisoned  bowl  to  sanc- 
tify the  truths  which  they  taught.  For  want  of  that 
interest  and  sympathy  in  the  condition  of  the  poor 
and  the  ignorant  which  the  new  circumstances  re- 
quired, they  and  their  descendants  have  been,  and 
will  be  compelled  to  drink  potions,  more  bitter  than 
hemlock,  as  their  daily  beverage. 


THOUGHTS.  175 

SCHOOLS   THE  COUNTERPART  OF  FREEDOM. 

I  HAVE  said  that  schools  should  have  been 
established  for  the  education  of  the  whole  peo- 
ple. These  schools  should  have  been  of  a  more 
perfect  character  than  any  which  have  ever  yet 
existed.  In  them,  the  principles  of  morality  should 
have  been  copiously  intermingled  with  the  principles 
of  science.  Cases  of  conscience  should  have  alter- 
nated with  lessons  in  the  rudiments.  The  multipli- 
cation table  should  not  have  been  more  familiar  nor 
more  frequently  applied,  than  the  rule,  to  do  to 
.  others  as  we  would  that  they  should  do  unto  us. 
The  lives  of  great  and  good  men  should  have  been 
held  up  for  admiration  and  example,  and  especially 
the  life  and  character  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  sub- 
limest  pattern  of  benevolence,  of  purity,  of  self- 
sacrifice,  ever  exhibited  to  mortals.  In  every  course 
of  studies,  all  the  practical  and  preceptive  parts  of 
the  gospel  should  have  been  sacredly  included  ;  and 
all  dogmatical  theology  and  sectarianism  sacredly 
excluded.  In  no  school  should  the  Bible  have  been 
opened  to  reveal  the  sword  of  the  polemic,  but  to 
unloose  the  dove  of  peace. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  show,  that  with  uni- 
versal suffrage,  there  must  be  universal  elevation  of 
character,  intellectual  and  moral,  or  there  will  be 
universal  mismanagement  and  calamity. 


176  THOUGHTS. 

STREXGTH  OF  A  REPUBLIC. 

SOME  have  thought  that,  in  a  republic,  the  good 
and  wise  must  necessarily  maintain  an  ascen- 
dency over  the  vicious  and  ignorant.  But  whence 
any  such  moral  necessity?  The  distinctive  char- 
acteristic of  a  republic  is  the  greater  freedom  and 
power  of  its  members.  A  republic  is  a  political 
contrivance  by  which  the  popular  voice  is  collected 
and  uttered,  as  one  articulate  and  authoritative 
sound.  If,  then,  the  people  are  unrighteous,  that 
utterance  will  be  unrighteous.  If  the  people,  or  a 
majority  of  them,  withdraw  their  eyes  from  wisdom 
and  equity,  —  those  everlasting  lights  in  the  firma- 
ment of  truth  ;  if  they  abandon  themselves  to  party 
strife,  where  the  triumph  of  a  faction,  rather  than 
the  prevalence  of  the  right,  is  made  the  object  of 
contest,  —  it  becomes  as  certain  as  are  the  laws  of 
Omnipotence,  that  such  a  community  will  express 
and  obey  the  baser  will. 

THE  SOVEREIGN  PEOPLE. 

I  REJOICE  that  power  has  passed  irrevocably 
into  the  hands  of  the  people,  although  I  know 
it  has  brought  imminent  peril  upon  all  public  and 
private  interests,  and  placed  what  is  common  and 
what  is  sacred  alike  in  jeopardy.     Century  after 


THOUGHTS.  177 

century,  mankind  had  groaned  beneath  unutterable 
oppressions.  To  pamper  a  few  with  luxuries,  races 
had  been  subjected  to  bondage.  To  satiate  the 
ambition  of  a  tyrant,  nations  had  been  dashed 
against  each  other  in  battle,  and  millions  crushed 
by  the  shock.  The  upward-tending,  light-seeking 
capacities  of  the  soul  had  been  turned  downwards 
into  darkness  and  debasement.  All  the  realms  of 
futurity  which  the  far-seeing  eye  of  the  mind  could 
penetrate,  had  been  peopled  with  the  spectres  of 
superstition.  The  spirits  of  the  infernal  world  had 
been  subsidized,  to  bind  all  religious  freedom, 
whether  of  thought  or  speech,  in  the  bondage  of 
fear.  Heaven  had  been  sold,  for  money,  like  an 
earthly  domicile,  by  those  who,  least  of  all,  had 
any  title  to  its  mansions.  In  this  exigency,  it  was 
the  expedient  of  Providence  to  transfer  dominion 
from  the  few  to  the  many,  —  from  those  who 
had  abused  it,  to  those  who  had  suffered.  The 
wealthy,  the  high-born,  the  privileged,  had  had  it 
in  their  power  to  bless  the  people  ;  but  they  had 
cursed  them.  Nov/,  they  and  all  their  fortunes  are 
in  the  hands  of  the  people.  The  poverty  which 
they  have  entailed  is  to  command  their  opulence. 
The  ignorance  they  have  suffered  to  abound,  is  to 
adjudicate  upon  their  rights.  The  appetites  they 
12 


178  THOUGHTS. 

have  neglected,  or  which  they  have  stimulated  for 
their  own  indulgence,  are  to  invade  the  sanctuary 
of  their  homes.  In  fine,  that  interest  and  concern 
for  the  welfare  of  inferiors,  which  should  have 
sprung  from  motives  of  philanthropy,  must  now  be 
extorted  from  motives  of  self-preservation.  As  a 
famine  teaches  mankind  to  be  industrious  and  prov- 
ident, so  do  these  great  developments  teach  the 
more  favored  classes  of  society  that  they  never  can 
be  safe  while  they  neglect  the  welfare  of  any  por- 
tion of  their  social  inferiors.  In  a  broad  survey  of 
the  grand  economy  of  Providence,  the  lesson  of 
frugality  and  thrift,  which  is  taught  by  the  dearth 
of  a  single  year,  is  no  plainer  than  this  grander 
lesson  of  universal  benevolence,  which  the  lapse  of 
centuries  has  been  evolving,  and  is  now  inculcating 
upon  the  world. 

ATHEISTS. 

I  HAVE  somewhere  seen  the  number  of  athe- 
ists, —  of  Abner  Kneeland's  men,  —  in  the  Uni- 
ted States,  stated  fearfully  high ;  but  upon  what 
authority,  or  after  what  extent  and  accuracy  of 
investigation,  I  am  not  able  to  say.  These  are  all 
men  —  if  not  voters;  —  for,  thank  Heaven,  the 
female  heart  is    untenantable  by  atheism.     But  a 


THOUGHTS.  179 

fact,  far  more  important  than  the  number  of  theo- 
retical atheists,  is,  the  number  of  'practical  athe- 
ists,—  of  those  who  live  without  God  in  the 
world,  —  who  have  neither  faith  nor  practice, 
respecting  the  existence,  the  immutability,  and 
the  inevitable  execution  of  the  Divine  Laws.  I 
say  the  number  of  practical  atheists  is  the  ques- 
tion of  greater  importance  ;  for  who  can  live  in 
this  world  and  mingle  with  its  people,  and  not  be 
more  deeply  impressed,  day  by  day,  with  the  divine 
wisdom  of  the  criterion,  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them "  ?  Actions  are  fruits,  while  pharisa- 
ical  professions  are  only  gilded  signs  or  placards, 
hung  upon  thistles  or  thorn-bushes,  saying,  "Ho, 
all  ye,  we  bear  figs  and  grapes  !  " 

"ALL  MUST  BE   CLE  AX,   OR  NONE  CAN-  BE  CLEAN." 

IT  is  the  sublimest  truth  which  the  history  of  the 
race  has  yet  brought  to  light,  that  God  has  so 
woven  the  fortunes  of  all  men  into  one  inseparable 
bond  of  unity  and  fellowship,  that  it  can  be  well 
with  no  class,  or  oligarchy,  or  denomination  of 
men,  who,  in  their  own  self-seeking,  forget  the 
welfare  of  their  fellow-beings.  Nature  has  so 
bound  us  together  by  the  ties  of  brotherhood,  by 
the  endearments  of  sympathy  and  benevolence,  that 


180  THOUGHTS. 

the  doing  of  good  to  others  opens  deep  and  peren- 
nial well-springs  of  joy  in  the  human  soul ;  but  if 
we  will  select  the  coarse  gratification  of  selfish- 
ness, —  if  we  will  forget  our  own  kindred  blood,  in 
whosesoever  veins  it  may  fl6w,  then  the  Eternal 
Laws  denounce,  and  will  execute  upon  us,  tribula- 
tion and  anguish,  and  a  fearful  looking  for  of  an 
earthly,  as  well  as  of  a  heavenly  judgment. 

DANGER   OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

I  DO  not  hesitate  to  affirm,  that  our  republican 
edifice,  at  this  time,  —  in  present  fact  and 
truth,  —  is  not  sustained  by  those  columns  of  solid 
and  ever-enduring  adamant.  Intelligence  and  Vir- 
tue. Its  various  parts  are  only  just  clinging  to- 
gether by  that  remarkable  cohesion,  —  that  mutual 
bearing  and  support  which  unsound  portions  of  a 
structure  may  impart  to  each  other,  and  which,  as 
every  mechanic  well  knows,  will,  for  a  time,  hold 
the  rotten  materials  of  an  edifice  together,  although 
not  one  of  its  timbers  could  support  its  own  weight : 
—  and  unless,  therefore,  a  new  substructure  can  be 
placed  beneath  every  buttress  and  angle  of  this 
boasted  Temple  of  Liberty,  it  will  soon  totter  and 
fall,  and  bury  all  indwellers  in  its  ruins. 


THOUGHTS.  181 

TRUTH,  AND  A   SOUL   TO   SEE  IT. 

TWO  different  elements  are  essential  to  the  ex- 
istence of  truth  in  the  soul  of  man  :  —  first, 
the  essence,  or  prototype  of  truth,  as  it  exists  in 
the  Divine  Intelligence ;  and  secondly,  a  human 
soul,  sufficiently  enlightened  by  knowledge  to  con- 
ceive it,  sufficiently  exercised  in  judgment  to  under- 
stand it,  and  sufficiently  free  from  evil  to  love  it. 
The  latter  are  every  whit  as  essential  as  the 
former.  The  human  mind  must  be  so  enlarged 
that  truth  can  enter  it,  and  so  free  from  selfishness, 
from  pride  and  intolerance,  that  truth  may  be  its 
constant  and  welcome  resident.  To  give  truth  a 
passport  to  the  souls  of  men,  to  insure  it  home  and 
supremacy  in  the  human  heart,  there  must  be  some 
previous  awakening  and  culture  of  the  intellectual 
and  moral  nature.  In  this  respect,  it  is  with  spir- 
itual, as  with  scientific  truth.  The  great  astro- 
nomical truths  which  pertain  to  the  solar  system, 
have  existed  ever  since  the  creation  ;  —  for  genera- 
tions past  they  have  been  known  to  the  learned  ;  — 
and  all  the  planets,  as  they  move,  are  heralds  and 
torch-bearers,  sent  round  by  the  hand  of  God, 
revolution  after  revolution,  and  age  after  age,  to 
make  perpetual  proclamation  through  all  their  cir- 
cuits, and  to   light  up  the  heavens,  from    side   to 


182  THOUGHTS. 

side,  with  ocular  and  refulgent  demonstration  of 
their  existence  ;  and  yet,  until  their  elements  are 
all  laboriously  taught,  until  our  minds  are  opened, 
and  made  capacious  for  their  reception,  these  glo- 
rious truths  are  a  blank,  and  for  our  vision  and  joy, 
might  as  well  never  have  been.  And  so  of  all 
truth  ;  —  there  must  be  a  mind  enlarged,  ennobled, 
purified,  to  embrace  truth,  in  all  .its  beauty,  sub- 
limity, and  holiness,  as  well  as  beautiful,  sublime, 
and  holy  truths  to  be  embraced.  Until  this  is  so, 
truth  will  be  a  light  shining  in  darkness,  and  the 
darkness  comprehending  it  not. 

FREEDOM  OR   SUBJECTION? 

ARE  there  any  who  would  counsel  us  to  save 
the  people  from  themselves,  by  wresting  from 
their  hands  the  formidable  right  of  ballot?  Better 
for  the  man  who  would  propose  this  remedy  to  an 
infuriate  multitude,  that  he  should  stand  in  the 
lightning's  path  as  it  descends  from  heaven  to 
earth.  And,  answer  me  this  question,  you  !  who 
would  reconquer  for  the  few,  the  power  which  has 
been  won  by  the  many ;  —  you !  who  would  dis- 
franchise the  common  mass  of  mankind,  and  recon- 
demn  them  to  become  helots,  and  bondmen,  and 
feudal   serfs ;  —  tell   me.   were   they  again   in    the 


THOUGHTS.  183 

power  of  your  castes,  would  you  not  again  neglect 
them,  again  oppress  them,  again  make  them  the 
slaves  to  your  voluptuousness,  and  the  panders  or 
the  victims  of  your  vices  ?  Tell  me,  you  royalists 
and  hierarchs,  or  advocates  of  royalty  and  hierar- 
chy !  were  the  poor  and  the  ignorant  again  in  your 
power,  to  be  tasked  and  tithed  at  your  pleasure, 
would  you  not  turn  another  Ireland  into  paupers, 
and  colonize  another  Botany  Bay  with  criminals  ? 
Would  you  not  brutify  the  men  of  other  provinces 
into  the  "  Dogs  of  Vendee,'^  and  debase  the  noble 
and  refined  nature  of  woman,  in  other  cities,  into 
the  ^' Poissardes  of  Paris?"  O!  better,  far  better, 
that  the  atheist  and  the  blasphemer,  and  he  who, 
since  the  last  setting  sun,  has  dyed  his  hands  in 
parricide,  or  his  soul  in  sacrilege,  should  challenge 
equal  political  power  with  the  wisest  and  the  best ; 
—  better,  that  these  blind  Samsons,  in  the  wan- 
tonness of  their  gigantic  strength,  should  tear  down 
the  pillars  of  the  Republic,  than  that  the  great 
lesson  which  Heaven,  for  six  thousand  years,  has 
been  teaching  to  the  world,  should  be  lost  upon 
it ;  —  the  lesson  that  the  intellectual  and  moral 
nature  of  man  is  the  one  thing  precious  in  the 
sight  of  God ;  and  therefore,  until  this  nature  is 
cultivated,  and  enlightened,   and   purified,    neither 


184  THOUGHTS. 

opulence,  nor  power,  nor  learning,  nor  genius,  nor 
domestic  sanctity,  nor  the  holiness  of  God's  altars, 
can  ever  be  safe.  Until  the  immortal  and  god-like 
capacities  of  every  being  that  comes  into  the  world 
are  deemed  more  worthy,  are  watched  more  ten- 
derly than  any  other  thing,  no  dynasty  of  men,  or 
form  of  government,  can  stand,  or  shall  stand, 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth ;  and  the  force  or  the 
fraud  which  would  seek  to  uphold  them,  shall  be 
but  "  as  fetters  of  flax  to  bind  the  flame." 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  MAJORITY  IN  A  liEPUBLIC. 

WE  go  by  the  major  vote,  and  if  the  majority 
are  insane,  the  sane  must  go  to  the  hos- 
pital. As  Satan  said,  "Evil,  be  thou  my  good," 
so  they  say,  "  Darkness,  be  thou  my  light." 

NATIOXAL   CRUIES. 

IN  nations,  every  individual  adds  a  unit  to  the 
factor  that  multiplies  all  capacities  of  good  or 
evil.  Hence  the  awful  magnitude  of  a  crime  when 
nations  put  their  strength  into  a  wicked  institution, 
or  frame  a  wicked  law,  or  strike  a  wicked  blow. 
Hence  the  unimaginable  suffering  when  a  nation 
turns  oppressor,  and  invents  and  plies  the  enginery 
of  wronjr. 


THOUGHTS.  185 

VICE  IN   COLLEGES. 

VICE  and  immorality,  and  the  promptings  of  an 
irreligious  heart,  stand  in  direct  antagonism 
to  all  true  progress  in  knowledge ;  and  under  their 
influence,  whatever  knowledge  may  be  acquired  is 
shorn  of  its  divinest  beauties.  May  all  university 
and  college  faculties,  then,  hunt  and  scourge  these 
pests  of  literary  institutions  from  their  precincts  ; 
not  necessarily  by  the  exclusion  of  the  oiFenders, 
not  necessarily  by  penalties,  but  by  opening  to  their 
pupils  loftier  and  nobler  views  of  human  duty  and 
destiny,  and  of  the  soul's  capacities  for  excellence  ; 
or,  as  Dr.  Chalmers  so  beautifully  expresses  it, 
"  by  the  expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection." 

NO    TRUTH   USELESS. 

NO  matter  how  seemingly  unconnected  with 
human  affairs  or  remote  from  human  inter- 
ests a  newly-discovered  truth  may  appear  to  be, 
time  and  genius  will  some  day  make  it  minister 
to  human  welfare.  When  Dr.  Franklin  was  once 
sceptically  asked  what  was  the  use  of  some  re- 
condite and  far-off  truth  which  had  just  been 
brought  to  light,  "  What,"  said  he,  "  is  the  use 
of  babies?  " 


186  THOUGHTS. 

CONNECTION   OF   SCIENCE   AND    RELIGION. 

THE  grand  object,  the  main  and  chief  thing,  in 
which  colleges  should  respond  to  the  demands 
of  the  age,  pertains  to  the  intimate  and  indissolu- 
ble unioQ  and  connection  which  God  has  ordained 
to  exist  between  science  on  the  one  hand,  and 
religion  on  the  other ;  and  by  religion  I  mean  the 
great  ideas  and  affections  pertaining  to  human 
brotherhood,  and  to  practical  obedience  to  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

WEALTH  OF  NATIONS. 

TO  write  a  work  on  the  "  Wealth  of  Nations," 
and  say  nothing  of  the  health,  education,  or 
morals  of  the  people  at  large,  is  as  though  a  man 
should  write  a  work  on  Mechanics,  and  ignore  the 
lever,  wheel,  and  axle,  pulley,  screw,  inclined  plane, 
and  wedge. 

PARENTAL  LOVE. 

THE  Creator  has  so  ordained,  that,  when  the 
offspring  of  each  animal,  "  after  its  kind,"  is 
brought  forth  into  life  —  then  —  in  that  same  hour 
—  without  volition  or  counsel,  flames  up  in  the 
breast  of  the  parent,  as  from  the  innermost  recesses 
of  Nature,  a  new  and  over-mastering  energy  —  an 
energy  which  enters  into  the  bosom  like  a  strong 


THOUGHTS.  187 

invader,  conquering,  revolutionizing,  transforming 
old  pleasures  into  pains  or  old  pains  into  pleasures, 
until  its  great  mission  is  accomplished.  On  this 
instinct  the  very  existence  of  the  races  is  suspended, 
and  therefore  it  is  made  strong  enough  to  sustain 
them  all. 

In  cultivated  and  Christianized  man,  this  animal 
instinct  is  exalted  into  a  holy  sentiment.  First,  it 
is  true,  swells  up  the  blind  passion  of  parental  love, 
yearning  for  the  good  of  the  child,  tortured  by  its 
pains,  chained  to  its  pleasures.  But  this  vehement 
impulse,  strong  as  it  is,  has  not  been  left  to  do  its 
work  alone.  It  summons  and  supplicates  all  the 
nobler  faculties  of  the  soul  to  become  its  allies. 

PARENTAL  CONSCIENCE. 

THAT  is  not  conscience,  but  selfishness,  which 
says  to  a  child,  "  You  owe  your  being  to  me." 
Conscience  says,  "  It  is  I  who  have  struck  out  a 
spark  which  is  to  burn  with  celestial  radiance  or 
shoot  out  baleful  fires,  and  I  am  bound  to  purify 
and  perfume  the  flame  I  have  kindled."  Conscience 
says,  "  Out  of  nothingness  have  I  worked  unknown 
and  incalculable  capacities  of  bliss  or  of  misery,  to 
be  enlarged  and  become  more  and  more  intense  for 
years,  and  lustres,  and  eternity." 


188  THOUGHTS. 

DISIXTERESTED  LOVE. 

THE  soul  of  the  truly  benevolent  man  aoes 
not  seem  to  live  very  much  in  its  own  body. 
Its  life  is  made  up  from  the  emotions  of  others. 
It  migrates  into  the  bodies  of  others,  and  identi- 
fies its  existence  with  theirs. 

THE  SOUL   ONE. 

ALL  minds  have  the  germs  of  all  the  faculties. 
The  anatomist  who  understands  the  structure 
and  parts  of  one  human  body,  understands  the 
structure  and  parts  of  all.  The  surgeon  does  not 
need  to  study  the  limb  on  which  he  is  to  operate  ; 
he  has  studied  all  its  parts  on  other  limbs.  So  in 
all  human  minds  there  is  the  same  number  of  facul- 
ties. Were  any  wanting,  or  were  there  a  redun- 
dancy in  any  individual,  that  individual  would  be  a 
monster.  There  are  great  differences  in  size,  in 
proportion,  in  structure,  in  color,  in  different  indi- 
viduals, but  all  are  made  after  one  model.  So  in 
the  human  soul  there  is  the  same  number  and  kind 
of  faculties,  but  differing  in  proportion,  in  ascen- 
dency. Herod  and  Howard  had  the  germs  of  benev- 
olence and  power,  yet  in  Herod  the  love  of  power 
bore  sway,  and  when  he  knew  that  there  was  a 
child  in  Judea  under  two  years  of  age  who  might 


THOUGHTS.  189 

endanger  the  stability  of  his  throne,  he  made  weep- 
ing and  lamentation  in  Israel  —  Rachel  weeping  for 
her  children,  and  would  not  be  comforted,  because 
they  were  not.  But  in  Howard  the  sentiment  of 
benevolence  predominated,  and  from  his  day  and 
by  his  beneficence,  the  records  of  human  suffering 
will  be  abridged  in  every  age  while  the  world 
stands. 

LOVE  OF  TRUTH  AN  ATTRIBUTE  OF  THE  INTELLECT. 


W 


UCH  of  the  welfare  of  every  generation  de- 
pends upon  the  working  capacity  of  the 
intellectual  faculties.  If  the  intellect  cannot  be 
trained  to  operate  Avith  mechanical  precision,  its 
powers  of  discrimination  between  truth  and  error 
may  be  greatly  improved.  The  intellect  has  an 
elective  affinity  for  truth.  It  instinctively  repu- 
diates known  error.  The  most  depraved  wretch 
does  not  love  false  conclusions  for  their  own  sake. 

ERRORS  OF  EDUCATION. 

THE  unpardonable  error  of  education  has  been, 
that  it  has  not  begun  with  simple  truths,  with 
elementary  ideas,  and  risen  by  gradations  to  com- 
bined results.  It  has  begun  with  teaching  systems, 
rules,  schemes,  complex  doctrines,  which  years  of 


190  THOUGHTS. 

analysis  would  scarcely  serve  to  unfold.  All  is  ad- 
ministered in  a  mass.  The  learner,  not  being  able 
to  comprehend,  has  endeavored  to  remember,  and 
thus  has  been  put  off  with  a  fact,  in  lieu  of  a  prin- 
ciple explanatory  of  an  entire  class  of  facts.  In 
this  way  we  pass  our  errors  and  our  truths  over  to 
our  successors  done  up  in  the  same  bundle,  they  to 
others,  and  so  onward,  to  be  perpetual  sources  of 
error,  alienation,  and  discord. 

''LIVE   TO  THE  TRUTH." 

THE  minds  of  the  incoming  generation  are  as 
free  from  the  possession  of  positive  error  as 
of  positive  truth,  and  they  havis  capacities  that  may 
be  qualified  to  discriminate  between  them.  Instil 
into  them  the  love  of  truth,  as  the  supreme  good  ; 
teach  them,  as  a  matter  of  conscience  and  duty, 
never  to  rehearse  what  is  believed  not  to  be  under- 
stood ;  lead  them  from  antecedent  to  sequence,  from 
cause  to  effect,  from  element  to  combinations,  and 
minds  will  be  reared  which  will  discover  truth,  not 
because  they  were  originally  stronger  or  better 
minds,  but  because  from  their  position  it  will  be 
more  easy  to  discern  it. 


^  THOUGHTS.  191 

MATERIAL  IMPORTANCE  OF  EDUCATION. 

NO  race  of  bondmen,  smothered  in  the  igno- 
rance essential  to  slavery,  can  ever  earn  so 
much  by  their  muscles  as  they  could  earn  by  their 
wits,  had  they  been  educated  and  free.  The  hand 
is  almost  valueless  at  one  end  of  the  arm  unless 
there  is  a  brain  at  the  other  end. 

POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

WHEN  visiting  the  Normal  School  at  Dublin, 
in  Ireland,  with  Archbishop  Whately,  an 
incident  occurred  which  shows  where  the  "  wealth 
of  nations  "  and  the  "  morals  of  nations  "  interlink. 
A  class  was  reciting  in  Political  Economy,  on  the 
subject  of  the  demand  and  supply  of  labor.  "  Sup- 
pose," said  the  archbishop,  "  a  hundred  laborers 
were  wanted  in  a  place  and  only  fifty  should  offer 
their  services,  what  would  be  the  consequence  ?  " 
"  They  would  be  paid  more"  said  the  lad.  '^  But 
suppose,"  said  the  archbishop,  "  only  a  hundred 
were  wanted,  and  two  hundred  should  come,  what 
would  then  be  the  consequence?"  "  There  luould 
he  a  rowy'  was  the  answer. 

SOME  schools  behave  almost  as  badly  as  Con- 
gress. 


192  THOUGHTS. 

TEE  KINGDOMS  OF  CHRIST  AND    OF  SATAN. 

GREAT  books  are  written  for  Christianity  much 
oftener  than  great  deeds  are  done  for  it.  City 
libraries  tell  us  of  the  reign  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  city 
streets  tell  us  of  the  reign  of  Satan. 

CHRIST'S  TEACHING. 

THE  pulpit  only  "teaches"  to  be  honest;  the 
market-place  "  trains "  to  overreaching  and 
fraud  ;  and  teaching  has  not  a  tithe  of  the  efficiency 
of  training.  Christ  never  wrote  a  Tract,  but  he 
went  ahout  doing   good. 

EVERY   MAN  HAS   HIS  OWN  GOD. 

NO  man  can  worship,  intelligently,  any  more  of 
God  than  he  knows.  A  man  cannot  worship 
God  for  his  fulness  of  wisdom,  who  is  ignorant  of 
the  works  in  which  that  wisdom  is  displayed.  So 
no  man  can  worship  God  for  his  love,  who  has 
no  perception  of  that  love  which  is  his  leading 
attribute. 

UNION  OF  HEART  AND  INTELLECT. 

WHEN   the   faculties   of    the   intellect,    which 
make  the  political  economist,  are  united  to 


0 
THOUGHTS.  193 


those  sympathies  of  the  heart  which  make  the 
philanthropist,  their  combined  power  will  scale 
heights  of  human  happiness  which  no  amount  of 
human  knowledge,  on  the  one  hand,  or  intensity  of 
love  on  the  other,  would  ever  be  able  alone  to  reach. 

HEAVEN  NOT  A  PLACE. 

HEAVEN  is  commonly  conceived  of  as  a  place, 
a  locality;  and  somewhere  in  God's  universe 
it  is  supposed  there  is  a  spot  where  elemental  storms 
never  deform  the  sky,  where  inward  sorrow  never 
cankers  the  heart.  There  is  rest  after  labor,  peace 
after  conflict,  smiles  after  tears,  and  such  happiness 
as  quenches  all  fiery  memories  of  former  pain  ;  and 
the  common  or  popular  notion  is,  that  when  good 
men  leave  this  world,  they  are  translated,  that  is, 
transported  to  heaven,  as  an  aeronaut  sails  off  in 
a  balloon. 

The  falsity  of  this  view  Christ  exposes,  when  he 
says,  "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  you."  In 
the  words  of  Holy  Writ,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
to  fear  God,  and  keep  his  commandments.  It  is  to 
love  the  Lord  our  God  with  aU  our  hearts,  and  our 
neighbor  as  ourselves.  It  is  to  do  to  others  as  we 
would  be  done  by. 
13 


194  THOUGHTS. 

IMMOR  TALITY  —  E  TERXITT. 

THE  idea  of  Immortality  differs  from  that  of 
Eternity.  We  conceive  of  immortality  as 
having  a  beginning,  but  no  end ;  but  we  conceive 
of  eternity  as  having  neither  beginning  nor  end. 
Hence  it  is  proper  to  speak  of  eternity  as  the 
attribute  of  God,  but  of  immortality  as  the  attri- 
bute of  man. 

IMMORTALITY  AN  IXNATE  CONVICTION. 

THE  doctrine  of  Immortality,  though  under  the 
most  various  forms,  has  constituted  a  promi- 
nent item  in  the  faith  of  almost  all  religions.  It 
seems,  therefore,  natural  to  man.  "We  say  that 
vegetation  is  natural  to  the  earth,  because,  wherever 
the  requisite  conditions  co-exist,  there  vegetation 
springs  up.  So  this  idea  of  immortality,  with  very 
few  exceptions,  seems  to  have  sprung  up  sponta- 
neously in  the  human  mind.  The  ideas  of  the 
eternity  of  God  and  the  immortality  of  man  go 
naturally  together.  .  .  .  The  meaning  of  immor- 
tality is,  that  there  is  something  in  us  all  which 
fire  cannot  consume,  nor  waters  drown,  nor  death 
assail ;  that  each  one  of  us  has  an  individuality,  a 
personality,  which  is  unsusceptible  of  decay,  im- 
pregnable to  corruption,  without  the  possibility  of 
perishing. 


THOUGHTS.  195 

IDEALITY. 

HOW  Strong  that  desire  of  improvement  in  the 
human  mind,  which  is  the  companion,  if  it 
be  not  the  condition,  of  genius! — that  ideality,  I 
mean,  that  always  runs  ahead  of  actuality.  Achieve- 
ment is  only  the  eminence  whence  we  survey  some- 
thing better  to  be  achieved.  Ideality  is  only  the 
av ant-courier  of  the  mind,  and  where  that,  in  a 
healthy  and  normal  state,  goes,  I  hold  it  to  be  a 
prophecy  that  realization  can  follow. 

IMMORTALITY. 

I  CAN  understand  why  our  Heavenly  Father 
should  cover  the  earth  with  flowers,  and  then 
suffer  them  to  wither  and  decay ;  why  He  should 
strew  the  bottom  of  the  ocean  with  pearl  and  many- 
colored  shells,  and  permit  them  to  radiate  all  their 
beauty  away  in  the  deep  ;  why  He  should  span  the 
dark  cloud  with  double  or  triple  rainbow,  and  in  an 
hour  melt  them  into  air ;  why  He  should  shoot  up 
the  northern  auroras  and  quench  their  glittering 
flames  ;  why  all  the  glories  of  the  sunrise  and  of 
the  sunset  should  hold  their  perpetual  circuit  around 
the  earth  from  east  to  west,  all  of  which  are  to  be 
swallowed  up  in  the  brightening  morning  or  in  the 
darkening  night ;  why,  with  the  annual  ascension 


196  THOUGHTS. 

and  declination  of  the  sun,  a  vast  Avave  of  beauty 
and  luxuriance  should  perpetually  vibrate  between 
the  summer  and  the  winter  solstice,  between  the 
temperate  zones  of  the  north  and  of  the  south,  to 
be  followed  at  each  extreme  by  wintry  frosts  and 
desolation  ;  —  I  say,  I  can  understand  all  this,  for 
these  hues  and  forms  of  beauty,  these  grandeurs 
and  splendors  of  nature,  have  no  conscious  exist- 
ence ;  they  did  not  know  they  lived,  they  do  not 
know  they  die  ;  no  song  of  exultation  ushered  them 
into  being,  no  hopes  died  when  they  departed  from 
it ;  and  God  is  so  rich  that  He  can  afford  to  cover 
the  firmament  from  horizon  to  zenith  with  the  most 
gorgeous  tapestry,  and  tear  it  down  and  replace  it 
with  new,  every  minute  while  we  gaze  ;  He  can 
afford  to  load  every  tree  in  the  forest  and  every 
tiniest  spire  in  the  field  with  his  icy  regalia,  —  such 
as  all  the  monarchs  in  the  world  cannot  buy,  — 
during  the  night,  and  melt  them  down  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  then  produce  new  charms  and  wonders 
from  the  old.  But  I  cannot  understand  why  our 
conscious  being,  just  awakened  here  into  life,  and 
capable  of  such  keen  and  unending  gratification ; 
why  our  virtues,  purchased  by  heroic  struggle  or 
endurance,  yielding  such  intense  subjective  enjoy- 
ment and  longing  for  a  career  of  immortality  ;  —  I 


THOUGHTS.  197 

cannot  understand  why  these  should  be  dissipated 
like  the  morning  cloud,  or  expire,  like  a  vernal 
flower,  by  some  inherent  law  of  limitation.  I  can- 
not explain  or  conceive  why  it  should  be,  when, 
perchance,  I  have  inherited  excessive  and  exorbi- 
tant propensities  from  my  ancestors  ;  or  find  my^ 
when  first  awaking  to  self-consciousness  '' 
comprehension,  already  in  the  grasp  6, 
passions,  by  reason  of  some  crime  in  my  pi\ 
or  mischance  in  my  organization,  or  ma\^^  "^y 
ment  of  my  powers ;  and  when,  after  A  "<^^  _^- 
myself  fully  acquainted  with  the  full  compass  of 
my  heritage  of  woe,  or  the  full  calamity  of  my  un- 
happy constitution,  I  address  myself,  in  a  life-long 
struggle,  to  the  work  of  self-recuperation,  and  one 
after  another  do  battle  with  these  fiends  of  evil  dis- 
positions that  have  been  incarnated  in  my  person  ; 
cut  off  one  after  another,  the  hundred  hydra-heads 
of  each  monster  appetite  and  passion  and  lust,  and 
like  the  hero  in  the  old  Grecian  myth,  apply  a  cau- 
tery of  red-hot  iron  to  the  quivering  flesh  of  every 
wound,  though  that  wound  is  in  my  own  soul,  and 
hold  it  there  through  wildest  and  fiercest  agonies, 
until  the  living  fibre  is  crisped  and  charred  too  deep 
to  allow  life  ever  to  spring  from  it  or  visit  it  again ; 
and  when,   at   last,    I  have    achieved   the   mighty 


198  THOUGHTS. 

victory,  aud  stand  in  majestic  and  glorious  propor- 
tions, hero  and  conqueror  over  that  late  domain  of 
sorrow  and  of  sin,  and  am  now  ready  to  enter 
upon  those  sublimer  realms  of  splendor  and  beati- 
tude, and  to  wing  my  celestial  course  upward, 
through  cycles  of  time  and  spirals  of  ascension,  all 
the  more  vigorously  because  of  the  strength  where- 
with I  endued  my  soul  in  the  aforetime  contest  with 
e.ny  Satanic  foes  ;  that  there,  at  the  very  apex  aud 
known  of  all  my  past  endeavors  and  achievements, 
into  \  my  soul  purified  and  rejuvenated,  with  my 
heart  panuug  *^  run  the  new  career,  with  my 
aspiring  eye  fixed  upon  the  zenith,  and  feeling  the 
grand  momentum  of  progression  lifting  in  every 
ato7n  of  my  being  ;  that  then,  instead  of  the  victor's 
palm  and  the  triumphal  entrance,  and  the  "  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant,"  I  must  be  struck 
into  annihilation,  changed  into  a  vacuum,  reduced 
to  that  idealess,  conceptionless  state,  if  such  a  state 
ever  was  or  ever  could  be,  anterior  to  Nothing ! 
Let  us  exclaim  not  only,  *'  O,  what  a  lame  and  im- 
potent," but  what  a  contemptible  and  blasphemous 
conclusion  !  The  Creator  of  such  a  world  has  made 
a  systematic  business  of  fatuity,  and  given  an  eter- 
nal organization  to  infinite  folly. 


THOUGHTS.  199 

LOVE   OF  IMPROVEMENT  A   PROPHECY. 

HOW  strong  the  desire  of  perfection  in  the  heart 
of  a  good  man  !  what  grief  over  error  !  what 
delightful  anticipations  of  improvement !  These  I 
hold  to  be  prophecy,  just  as  the  embryo  lungs 
prophesied  the  air,  and  the  embryo  eye  the  light. 
Without  immortality,  well  did  Lord  Bacon  say,  — 

"  The  world's  a  bubble,  and  the  life  of  man 
Less  thaii  a  span  ; 
~^  In  his  conception  wretched,  from  the  womb, 

So  to  the  tomb, 
Curst  from  the  cradle,  and  brought  up  to  years 

With  care  and  fears  ;  — 
"Who,  then,  to  frail  mortality  shall  trust,      i 
But  limns  the  water,  or  but  writes  in  dust." 

THINK— ACT.  y 

JUST  in  proportion  as  a  man  becomes  good, 
divine,  Christ-like,  he  passes  out  of  the  region 
of  theorizing,  of  system-building,  and  hireling  ser- 
vice, into  the  region  of  beneficent  activities.  It  is 
well  to  think  well.     It  is  divine  to  act  well. 

GEOLOGY— ASTR  ONOMY. 

GEOLOGY  leads  us  backward  into  Time,  in  the 
same  manner  as  Astronomy  leads  us  outward 
into  Space.  The  one  kindles  the  imagination  as 
fervidly  as  it  bears  it  backward   into  the  eternity 


200  THOUGHTS. 

of  duration,  as    the   other  does  when   it  causes  us 
to  soar  outv/ard  into  an  immensity  of  space. 

WHAT  SANCTIFIES   CIVILIZATION. 

WHO  shall  contradict  the  saying  of  Adam 
Smith,  that  "  he  is  a  public  benefactor  who 
makes  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  but  one 
grew  before "  ?  This  the  scientific  man  does. 
AVherever  the  intelligent  and  industrious  man  goes, 
though  it  be  to  barren  waste  or  pestilential  morass, 
health  and  abundance  follow,  if  any  regard  for  the 
common  weal  sanctifies  the  civilization. 

^T  IS  EASIER  '^C  DIE  FOR  OTHERS  THAN  TO  LIVE, 
FOR   OTHERS. 

WE  .feel  within  ourselves  the  power  to  die  for 
others  as  Christ  did.  But  can  we  live  for 
others  as  he  did?  It  is  far  more  difficult,  I  assure 
you,  to  live  for  the  truth  than  to  die  for  it.  I  have 
seen  the  time  when,  if  that  would  have  answered 
as  well,  I  could  have  died  for  a  cause  as  easily  as  a 
babe  falls  asleep;  but  to  live  for  it  —  that  is  the 
cutting  off  of  the  riglit  hand,  that  is  the  plucking 
out  of  the  right  eye.  Patient  perseverance  in 
well-doing  is  infinitely  harder  than  a  sudden  and 
impulsive    self-sacrifice.    And   hence  this  "  patient 


THOUGHTS.  201 

continuance "  is  the  brightest  jewel  in  the  diadem 
of  Christian  virtues. 


TEMPERANCE. 


A 


BOVE  all,  let  the  poor  hang  up  the  amulet  of 
temperance  in  their  homes. 


I  SPEAK  against  the  entire  operation  of  the 
system,  the  manufacture,  traffic  and  consump- 
tion of  ardent  spirits  ;  I  speak  against  the  whole 
accursed  process  and  all  its  several  parts,  from  the 
time  when  we  take  a  last  look  at  the  simple,  health- 
ful, life-sustaining  fruits  of  the  earth  before  they  are 
subjected  to  the  action  of  the  distiller's  fire,  until 
after  they  have  passed  through  all  the  transforming* 
processes,  and  clothed  with  another  nature,  and  dis- 
tributed through  the  community,  come  forth  imbued 
w4th  a  new  and  terrific  life,  gigantic,  multiform, 
resistless,  stalking  over  the  earth  in  the  thousand 
shapes  of  poverty,  disease,  anguish,  death,  incen- 
"'^rism,  murder,  and  undying  ignominy. 

J  NOT    approximate   to  any  just  and  ade- 

_L  quate  enumeration  of  the  pernicious  results  of 
intemperance.  When  I  pass  in  review  in  my  mind 
the  boundless  variety  and  extent  of  its  calamities,  I 


202  THOUGHTS. 

feel  as  though  I  were  moving  round  in  a  circle 
large  as  the  orbit  of  Saturn,  where  upon  either  side, 
farther  than  the  eye  can  reach,  there  is  nothing  but 
desolation  and  woe,  by  which  mankind  have  been 
decimated,  —  a  tenth  part  cut  off  and  dissociated 
from  the  rest.   .   .  . 

IF  all  the  wealth  now  sunk  in  the  bottomless  pit 
of  intemperance  were  appropriated  to  the  pur- 
chase of  libraries,  philosophical  apparatus,  or  cabi- 
nets of  natural  history ;  —  if  all  the  time,  that 
element  of  priceless  value  which  is  now  worse  than 
lost  in  the  various  haunts  of  dissipation,  Avere 
devoted  to  the  reading  of  well-selected  books,  to 
lyceum  exercises,  to  music,  or  other  social  and  re- 
fining arts,  it  would  give  to  society  a  new  moral 
and  political  sensorium.  How  can  any  man  witness 
without  pain  this  great  deformity,  where  there  should 
be  beauty  and  divine  grandeur  ? 

WHEN  Solomon  says,  "  Wine  is  a  mocker, 
and  strong  drink  is  raging,"  and  when  the 
apostle  Paul  repeatedly  classes  "  drunkenness " 
with  the  most  foul  and  fatal  of  crimes,  what  con- 
firmation of  his  texts  does  the  Christian  minister 
find  in  the  sciences  of  Pathology  and  Psychology, 


THOUGHTS.  203 

which  show  alcohol  to  be  among  the  deadliest  of 
poisons  for  the  body,  and  endowed  with  demoniac 
power  over  the  soul ! 

IN  the  march  of  universal  improvement,  educa- 
tion must  lead  the  van,  but,  in  certain  passages 
of  this  march,  temperance  must  be  the  pioneer  of 
education.  On  human  beings,  as  nature  leaves 
them,  education  can  do  a  transforming  work ;  but 
on  human  beings  as  intemperance  leaves  them, 
education  falls  as  fruitless  as  water  upon  flint. 

FOUR  fifths  of  all  the  sufferings  endured  by  the 
poor  are  caused,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  the 
use  of  ardent  spirits.  Such  sufferings  never  come 
in  the  course  of  nature,  nor  are  they  any  necessary 
part  of  the  dispensations  of  Providence. 

ENTIRE  absence  from  all  intoxicating  drinks, 
as  a  beverage,  would,  with  all  its  attendant 
blessings,  in  the  course  of  a  single  generation,  carry 
comfort,  competence,  and  respectability,  with  but 
very  few  exceptions,  into  all  the  dwellings  in  the 
land.  This  is  not  a  matter  of  probability  and  con- 
jecture. It  depends  upon  principles  as  certain  imd 
fixed  in  their   operation   as   those   which  regulate 


204  THOUGHTS. 

the  rising   of  the   sun  and   the   revolution  of  the 
seasons. 

I  BELIEVE  the  general  opinion  has  been,  and  to 
some  extent,  still  is,  that  intemperate  men  are 
the  grocer's  or  retailer's  most  profitable  customers. 
Certainly,  in  all  the  efforts  which  have  been  made 
for  a  reform,  whether  by  means  of  legal  restraint  or 
moral  suasion,  the  grocers  and  retailers,  as  a  class, 
have  arrayed  themselves  among  its  opponents.  I 
believe  it  to  be  perfectly  demonstrable  that  they 
are  losers,  instead  of  gainers,  by  the  traffic  they 
carry  on  and  defend.  I  believe  the  profits  of  their 
business  will  be  greater  just  in  proportion  as  the 
community  becomes  more  sober.  The  poor  intem- 
perate man  and  his  family  remain  fixed  and  sta- 
tionary, at  the  point  of  bare  subsistence. 

COMPARE,  or  rather  contrast,  the  pecuniary 
benefits  which  tradesmen  and  mechanics,  of 
every  kind,  receive  from  a  company  of  a  thousand 
squalid  and  destitute  immigrants,  however  much 
these  may  need  for  food,  clothing,  or  shelter,  with 
the  profits  which  the  same  classes  would  derive 
fiViLB  a  village  of  a  thousand  educated,  industrious, 
find  perate  people ;    and  we  see  how  deeply  inter- 


THOUGHTS.  205 

ested  all  are  in  stopping   this   prodigious   leakage 
from  their  common  reservoir  of  gain. 

I  DO  not  contend  that  intemperance  is  the  cause 
of  every  evil  which  the  more  favored  classes 
of  society  may  feel  or  fear.  Should  this  terrible 
^ourge  cease  its  inflictions,  at  once  and  univer- 
sally, I  have  no  belief  that  the  earth  would  be 
forthwith  Arcadianized,  or  that  the  millennium 
would  no  longer  delay  its  coming ;  but  still  I  do 
believe  that  the  depths  of  the  misery  of  this  vice 
are  yet  as  far  from  ever  having  been  fathomed  as 
the  deepest  parts  of  the  ocean  ;  and  that  those  who 
have  pondered  upon  it  longest  and  most  profoundly, 
have  only,  as  it  were,  explored  a  few  leagues  along 
the  wreck-covered  coast  of  a  mighty  continent  of 
evil. 

THE  brightest  minds  are  most  subject  to  the  dia- 
bolical seducements  of  intemperance.  Who, 
in  the  circle  of  his  own  acquaintance,  does  not 
remember  some  shining  intellect,  some  bright  orb 
of  mind,  rising  in  splendor,  and  rapidly  ascending 
to  a  refulgent  day,  but  suddenly  shrouded  in  ever- 
lasting night  ? 


206  THOUGHTS. 

WHEN  men  of  education  and  taste,  general- 
izing their  ideas  of  propriety  and  beauty, 
and  applying  the  same  rules  of  judging  and  of 
acting,  to  the  supreme,  that  they  now  apply  to  the 
subordinate  affairs  of  men ;  when  they  shall  look 
upon  the  well  ordering  of  society  as  they  now  look 
upon  an  improved  machine  or  a  well-executed  wof1k 
of  art,  or  even  upon  a  skilful  scenic  exhibition  of 
what  never  existed,  then  will  all  the  means  by 
which  intemperance  is  diffused  or  countenanced 
become  the  disgust  and  scorn  of  mankind.  The 
spreader  of  pestilential  diseases  will  be  esteemed  a 
more  tolerable  member  of  the  community  than  the 
manufacturer  or  vender  of  alcoholic  drinks. 

IN  what  pagan  nation  was  Moloch  ever  propi- 
tiated by  such  an  unbroken  and  swift-moving 
procession  of  victims  as  are  offered  to  this  Moloch 
of  Christendom,  Intemperance ! 

INTEMPERANCE  squanders  an  enormous  por- 
tion of  the  resources  of  this  country.  The 
capital  spent  in  the  preliminary  operations  of  pro- 
ducing the  materials  and  of  manufacturing,  pur- 
chasing, and  vending  intoxicating  drinks,  has 
exceeded  the  whole    civil   list  expenditures  of  all 


THOUGHTS.  207 

our  governments,  state  and  national.  After  hav- 
ing cost  so  much  for  production  and  distribution, 
its  consumption  generates  a  class  of  persons  whose 
support  and  punishment  equal  the  amount  of  the 
primary  outlay.  And  the  value  of  productive  labor 
annihilated,  and  the  aggregate  of  losses  occasioned 
by  this  consumption,  subtract  from  the  available 
resources  of  the  community  a  third  sum,  probably 
not  inferior  in  magnitude  to  each  of  the  others. 

IT  *s  not  extravagant  to  say,  that  civilization,  in 
this  country,  is  now  a  century  behind  what  it 
would  have  been,  if  ardent  spirits  had  never  been 
known  amongst  us.  I  do  not  mean  that  species 
of  civilization  whose  only  evidences  consist  in  a 
few  prodigies  of  learning,  or  a  few  great  masters 
in  the  elegant  arts,  Avith  a  small  metropolitan  circle 
of  courtly  gentlemen,  while  all  around  is  passion, 
and  ignorance,  and  superstition.  All  this,  where 
this  is  ^jU,  is  but  mockery.  But  I  mean  the  civili- 
zation which  consists  in  a  love  of  order  and  of  duty, 
and  in  that  recognition  and  sacred  regard  for  the 
rights  of  others  which  cannot  be  enforced  by  law  ; 
in  affectionate  hearts,  in  active,  truth-loving  minds, 
—  all  combining  to  make  happy  families,  brotherly 
neighborhoods,  and  a  great  and  incorruptible  peo- 


208  THOUGHTS. 

pie.  This  kind  of  civilization  has  already  been 
postponed  a  century,  in  our  land,  by  the  burdening 
effects  of  intemperance. 

THERE  are  but  two  methods  of  curbing  or  sub- 
duing the  unlawful  propensities  of  men  :  either 
by  an  external  or  an  internal  power  :  either  by  the 
law  of  force  or  the  law  of  duty.  In  most  of  the 
countries  of  Europe,  the  rulers  adopt  the  surgical 
system ;  and,  for  that  system,  they  use  the  appro- 
priate instruments  ;  —  the  horse-guard,  the  gendar- 
merie, and  the  Siberian  mines.  Here  we  pro- 
fess to  adopt  the  preventive  system.  Universal 
education  is  our  theoretical  substitute  for  standing 
armies.  Instead  of  policemen,  traversing  every 
road  and  street,  we  propose  the  early  inculcation 
of  virtuous  principles  upon  the  minds  of  the  young. 
School-houses  are  the  republican  line  of  fortifica- 
tions. And  yet,  in  flagrant  violation  of  all  these 
pretensions  and  assumptions,  we  legalize  and  up- 
hold a  system  which  counterworks  the  influence  of 
all  virtuous  education,  engenders  a  spirit  of  uni- 
versal lawlessness,  and  multiplies,  a  thousand  fold, 
the  potency  of  all  dissocial  passions.  .  .  .  Let  there 
be  an  entire  abstinence  from  intoxicating  drinks 
throughout    this   country   during   the   period  of  a 


THOUGHTS.  209 

single  generation,  and  a  mob  would  be  as  impos- 
sible as  combustion  without  oxygen. 

OBJECTION  has  been  made  that  the  Maine 
law  invades  natural  rights.  It  restricts  natu- 
ral powers ;  but  I  deny  that  it  invades  natarul 
rights.  In  a  state  of  nature,  men  have  the  power 
to  do  wrong,  but  neither  in  a  state  of  nature  nor  in 
society,  can  men  have  a  right  to  do  wrong. 


IS  the  legislation  which  tolerates,  is  that  admin- 
istration of  the  law  which  encourages,  are 
those  departments  of  business  and  those  usages 
of  society  which  inflict  this  reeking  abomination 
of  intemperance  upon  mankind,  —  are  these  the 
boasted  fruits  of  six  thousand  years  of  experience 
and  of  progress?  Who  dares  teach  children,  at 
home  or  at  the  Sabbath  school,  that  it  is  eighteen 
hundred  years  since  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  era,  when  we  all  know  that  the  Sabbath 
is  the  benefit  day  of  the  rum-seller,  and  the  very 
Saturnalia  of  drunkenness?  It  almost  seems  as 
though  it  were  by  way  of  insult  and  mockery, 
that  in  some  of  our  States,  in  the  very  chapter  of 
the  statute-book  which  sustains  the  whole  scheme 
of  rum-selling,  the  Sabbath  is  called  the  Lord's 
14 


210  THOUGHTS. 

Day.  Consult  the  records  of  the  Police  Court, 
and  the  officers  of  justice  on  Monday  morning,  and 
they  will  tell  you  whose  day  the  Sabbath  has  been, 
in  facts  that  leave  no  doubt  about  the  patron's 
name. 

I  FEEL  a  sentiment  of  pity  overmastering  that 
of  indignation,  when  I  see  the  poor  and  igno- 
rant seeking,  through  the  indulgence  of  appetite,  a 
transient  oblivion  of  their  cares  and  sorrows.  They 
do  not  at  all  comprehend  the  magnitude  of  their 
error.  Human  nature  demands  excitement.  Of 
this  they  are  conscious,  while  they  know  but  imper- 
fectly of  any  other  resource  save  animal  pleasures. 
But  there  is  no  such  palliation  for  the  wealthy  and 
educated.  They  are  relieved  from  all  the  ignoble 
necessities  of  existence.  They  have  ten  thousand 
captivating  resources  at  command.  The  lessons 
of  wisdom  which  blaze  forth  on  every  side  of  the 
universe  summon  them  to  high  contemplations  and 
noble  deeds,  as  with  the  voice  of  seraphim. 

MAN  is  improvable.  Some  people  think  he  is 
only  a  machine,  and  that  the  only  difference 
between  a  man  and  a  mill  is,  that  one  is  carried  by 
blood  and  the  other  by  water. 


THOUGHTS.  211 

\\l i^   want  pillars,  not   pipe-stems.     We   want 
f  f     men  who   will   never    use  the   rod    of    the 
oppressor,  nor  bear  the  touch  of  his  heel. 

YOU  need  not  tell  all  the  truth,  unless  to  those 
who  have  a  right  to  know   it  all.     But  let 
all  you  tell  be  truth. 

INSULT  not  another  for  his  want  of  the  talent 
you  possess ;  he   may  have  talents  which  you 
want. 

REPROOF    is    a    medicine,    like    mercury    or 
opium ;  if   it    be  improperly  administered,  it 
will  do  harm  instead  of  good. 

GENEROSITY  during  life  is  a  very  different 
thing  from  generosity  in  the  hour  of  death ; 
one  proceeds  from  genuine  liberality  and  benevo- 
lence, —  the  other  from  pride  or  fear. 

SOME  people  are  as  incapable  of  seeing  but  one 
side  of  a  subject,  as  the  flounder  and  turbot 
tribes  among  fishes,  which,  having  both  eyes  placed 
on  one  side  of  their  heads,  are  able  to  see  but  one 
way. 


212  THOUGHTS. 


B 


E   sure  of  the   fact,  before  you   lose  time  in 
searchinor  for  a  cause. 


IF   you   have  a   friend    that  will   reprove   your 
faults  and  foibles,  consider  you  enjoy  a  blessing 
which  the  king  upon  his  throne  cannot  have. 

DO  not  think  of  knocking  out  another  person's 
brains  because  he  diifers  in  opinion  frono  you. 
It  would  be  as  rational  to  knock  yourself  on  the  head 
because  you  differ  from  yourself  ten  years  ago. 

THERE  is  hardly  any  bodily  blemish  which  a 
winning  behavior  will  not  conceal,  or  make 
tolerable ;  and  there  is  no  external  grace  which  ill 
nature  or  affectation  will  not  deform. 

DO  well,  but  do  not  boast  of  it,  for  that  will 
lessen  the  commendation  you  might  otherwise 
have  deserved. 

THE  erroneous  opinions  of  a  man  of  sense  are 
of  the  most  dangerous  example. 


I 


F  you  can  express  yourself  so  as  to  be  perfectly 
understood  in  ten  words,  never  use  a  dozen. 


THOUGHTS.  213 

NATURE  in  russet  is  more  agreeable  than  affec- 
tation in  embroidery. 

THERE  are  some  disputers,  who,  after  trying  all 
sophistry  in   vain,  call  to  their  aid  the  super- 
natural. 


I 


T  is  more  difficult,  and  calls  for  higher  energies 
of  soul,  to  live  a  martyr  than  to  die  one. 


rSlHINGS  impossible  and  inconceivable; — that 
JL  a  thing  should  be  and  should  not  be  at  the 
same  time  ;  part  equal  to  the  whole  ;  that  two  straight 
lines  should  enclose  space  ;  effect  without  a  cause  ; 
space  unnecessary  to  the  existence  of  matter ;  or 
time  to  the  succession  of  events. 

SOME  people's  thoughts  never  take  their  places 
one  behind  another :  they  attack,  not  with  a 
well-disciplined  and  compact  column,  but  with  a 
rabble  of  ideas. 

ALL  mental  growth  is  organization,  not  accre- 
tion ;  it   comes   from    within    outwards,    and 
does  not  consist  in  enlargement  by  external  applica- 


214  THOUGHTS. 

TRUE  BASIS  OF  POLITICS. 

EDUCATION  has  nothing  to  do  with  politics, 
but  everything  to  do  with  that  intelligence  and 
true  worthiness  which  are  the  true  basis  of  all 
politics. 

FEAR  AND  FALSEHOOD. 

FEAR  begets  falsehood  ;  and  as  fear  is  the  prin- 
cipal instrument  in  procuring  family  obedience, 
falsehood  has  been  called,  with  striking  and  fearful 
significance,  the  "  epidemic  of  the  nursery." 

LAW. 

LET  but  the  public  mind  once  become  thor- 
oughly corrupt,  and  all  attempts  to  secure 
property,  liberty,  or  life,  by  mere  force  of  laws 
written  on  parchment,  will  be  as  vain  as  to  put  up 
printed  notices  in  an  orchard  to  keep  off  canker- 
worms. 

FALSE  SHAME. 

WHAT  a  perversion  it  is  that  a  nice  young  gen- 
tleman should  be  ashamed  of  appearing  in 
the  street  without  a  fashionable  dress,  but  should 
not  be  ashamed  of  cheating  the  tailor  to  get  one  ! 

AFFECTATION  hides  three  times  as  many  vir- 
tues as  Charity  does  sins. 


THOUGHTS.  215 

THERE  is  no  duty  more  difficult  or  more  thank- 
less than  to  check   over-exertion   in  a    cause 
substantially  good. 

AN  ancient  nation  so  located  its  edifices,  that  the 
Temple  of    Honor  could  only  be  approached 
by  passing  through  the  Temple  of  Virtue. 

LOVE  not  only  occupies  the  higher  lobes  of  the 
brain,  but  crowds  out  the  lower  to  make  room 
for  its  expansion. 

LOVE  —  that  divine  fire  which  was    made    to 
light  and  warm  the  temple  of  home  —  some- 
times burns  at  unholy  altars. 

IF  evil  is  inevitable,  how  are  the  wicked  accounta- 
ble? Nay,  why  do  we  call  men  wicked  at  all? 
Evil  is  inevitable,  but  it  is  also  remediable. 

PHYSICS  is  the  Science  of  Matter  ;  Metaphysics 
the  Science   of  Mind  —  the  Science  of  Being ^ 
apart  from  accidents  and  properties  —  Ontology. 


W 


HO    can   educate    without    some   theory    of 
Mind? 


216  THOUGHTS. 

HE  who  proposes  to  become  religious  and  join 
a  church,  in  order  to  get  more  practice  as  a 
lawyer  or  physician,  or  more  custom  as  a  mer- 
chant, is  guilty  of  precisely  the  same  sort  of  offence 
as  an  Egyptian,  in  the  time  of  Sesostris,  who  should 
first  kill  and  then  eat  beefsteaks  out  of  the  sacred 
cow  he  worshipped. 

ALL  nations  have  their  sacred  books  or  relics, 
and,  from  the  very  constitution  of  the  human 
mind,  must  have  them. 

WHAT  swimmer  is  there,  who,  if  he  saw  a 
fellow-being  drowning  in  deep  water,  would 
not  plunge  in  and  save  him?  or  what  man,  if  he 
saw  one  calling  from  the  window  of  a  house  en- 
veloped in  flames,  would  not  peril  his  own  life  to 
save  him?  But  it  is  infinitely  more  to  save  a 
fellow-being  from  a  moral  death. 

THE  term  Metaphysics  originated  with  the  follow- 
ers of  Aristotle.  They  collected  his  treatises  on 
Natural  Science  and  called  them  to  q^varxu.  Then 
they  arranged  other  treatises  on  philosophical  sub- 
jects, and  entitled  them  la.  /usracpvaixa^  —  heyond 
physics,  or  not  included  in  them. 


THOUGHTS.  217 

THE  most  precious  wine  is  produced  upon  the 
sides  of  volcanoes.  New,  bold,  and  inspiring 
ideas  are  only  born  of  a  clear  head  that  stands  over 
a  glowing  heart. 

WE  can  be  alike  in  spirit,  however  great  or 
small  W3  may  be  in  thought ;  for  "  thus  saith 
the  high  and  lofty  One  that  inhabiteth  eternity, 
whose  name  is  Holy,  I  dwell  in  the  high  and  holy 
place  ;  with  him  also  that  is  of  a  contrite  and  hum- 
ble spirit ;  "  but  nowhere  is  it  said  that  God  dwell- 
eth  with  the  great  intellect,  or  with  the  intellect 
that  can  form  the  grandest  conceptions  of  Him. 

LOST,  yesterday,  somewhere  between  sunrise 
and  sunset,  two  golden  hours,  each  set  with 
sixty  diamond  minutes.  No  reward  is  offered,  for 
they  are  gone  forever  ! 

MENTAL  PHILOSOPHY. 

MENTAL  Philosophy  is  not  properly  Meta- 
physics. Metaphysics,  in  its  wider  and  pop- 
ular sense,  includes  Logic,  Ethics,  Politics,  and 
Ontology. 


rnRUE  glory  is  a  flame  lighted  at  the  skies. 


218  THOUGHTS. 


M" 


"ENTAL  Philosophy  is  a  Natural  Science. 
The  human  mind  is  the  most  important  part 
of  nature.  It  rests  on  experience,  observation,  and 
induction.  It  is  a  science  of  facts,  phenomena,  and 
laws. 

MENTAL  Science  is  possible.  There  is  a  sci- 
ence of  plants,  of  animals,  of  the  earth,  of 
the  stars.  So  the  phenomena,  facts,  and  laws  of 
our  minds  can  be  observed,  classified,  and  stated. 

CONCEPTIONS  are  neither  true  nor  false,  but 
judgments  are. 

POSSIBLE  things  are  not  always  conceivable,  — 
existence  without  beginning  or  end ;  the  Infi- 
nite, the  Unconditional,  the  Absolute. 

THE  Science  of  Matter  and  the  Science  of  Mind 
are  alike  in  this,  —  that  all  we  know  of  either 
is  the  phenomena  they  exhibit.  We  know  certain 
qualities  of  matter ;  we  know  certain  things  the 
mind  does  —  perceives,  thinks,  feels.  The  modes 
of  investigation  are  the  same  in  both,  but  unlike  in 
this,  —  that  in  mind,  the  field  of  observation  is 
necessarily  within  ourselves  ;  in  matter,  w^ithout. 


THOUGHTS.  219 

THE  phenomena  of  Mind  are  within  our  reach. 
The  facts  of  Physical  Science  are  scattered 
over  the.  globe  and  over  centuries.  In  Psychology, 
the  mind  is  its  own  laboratory,  and  has  its  materials 
within  itself. 

ATTENTION—  ac^^e?ic7o,  a  bending  or  stretch- 
ing towards  any  object  of  interest.  It  marks 
the  degrees  of  intensity  with  which  we  devote  our 
minds  to  any  subject  or  thing. 

I  THINK  I  restrict  myself  within  bounds  in  say- 
ing, that  so  far  as  I  have  obseiwed  in  this  life, 
ten  men  have  failed  from  defect  in  morals  where 
one  has  failed  from  defect  in  intellect. 


THE  "  lower  orders  "  are  those  who  do  nothing  ^ 
for  the  ofood  of  mankind. 


A 


MAN   of  worth  is   like  gold  —  never  out  of 
fashion. 


INTUITIONS.     Time,  space,  cause,   the   right, 
the  beautiful,  —  not  communicated,  but  awak- 
ened in  the  mind  by  other  things. 


220  THOUGHTS. 

THIS  Science  of  Mind  is  neglected  because  its 
benefits  are  not  immediately  apparent,  its  at- 
tainments not  capable  of  display. 


EDUCATION  is  our  only  political  safety.     Out- 
side of  this  ark  all  is  deluoje. 


I  CONCEIVE  when  I  have  any  distinct  object  of 
thought.  It  is  part  of  all  our  mental  opera- 
tions, —  involved  in  perception,  memory,  imagina- 
tion, abstraction,  reasoning,  etc. 

PSYCHOLOGY  has  relations  to  Theology. 
Ideas  of  Divine  Being  must  be  in  our  own 
minds,  as  well  as  arguments,  to  prove  this  exist- 
ence.. Questions  of  human  ability  and  of  free  will 
are  discussed  and  decided. 

PHRENOLOGICAL  division  of  Faculties  of  the 
Mind  far  more  numerous  than  any  other,  —  it 
looks  to  the  classes  of  actions  or  functions  miud  has 
to  perform,  and  finds  faculties  to  perform  them,  as 
the  naturalist,  who  could  not  find  the  ear  of  a  fish 
by  looking  externally,  looked  from  the  lobe  in  the 
brain  where  the  auditory  nerve  should  terminate 
outwardly,  and  found  it. 


THOUGHTS.  '  221 

VALUES. 

THE  true  doctrine  in  relation  to  the  value  which 
we  should  attach  to  property  seems  to  be 
this  :  —  up  to  the  point  of  competence  and  to  that 
degree  of  possession  which  places  us  above  tempta- 
tion, which  confers  self-respect  and  independence 
of  feeling,  and  the  power  of  performing  duty,  few 
things  are  more  valuable  than  property ;  beyond 
that  point,  few  things  are  of  less  value. 

ADD   TO  KyOWLEDGE,    VIRTUE. 

THE  Apostle  exhorted  the  early  Christians  to 
add  to  their  virtue,  knowledge.  Do  we  not 
need  the  converse  of  this  exhortation,  that  we  add 
to  our  knowledge,  virtue? 

ADAPTATIOX  OF  MOTIVES. 

THERE  is  a  class  of  motives  appropriate  to 
every  age,  to  every  degree  of  mental  advance- 
ment ;  the  great  secret  is  to  know  what  motives 
belong  to  the  age  and  the  progress. 

OBJECTS  of  conception  are  material  or  spiritual, 
actual  or  ideal,  sensible  or  supersensible,  past 
or  future. 


222  THOUGHTS. 

WHAT  is  a  Mental  Faculty  ?  A  power  of  mind 
capable  of  performing  a  specific,  distinct  class 
of  operations.  As  many  faculties  as  distinct  powers 
of  action,  distinct  functions,  distinct  modes  and 
spheres  of  activity. 

PHILOSOPHY   OF   TEACHING. 

SCHOOL  exercises  should  be  founded  on  mental 
philosophy,  as  gymnastic  exercises  are  upon 
physiology.  In  one  all  the  muscles  of  the  body 
must  be  known,  and  the  exercises  adapted  to 
strengthen  them ;  in  the  other,  all  the  faculties 
should  be  known,  and  the  exercises  adapted  to  im- 
prove them. 

HASTE  IN  TEACHING. 

IN  trying  to  teach  children  a  great  deal  in  a  short 
time,  they  are  treated  not  as  though  the  race 
they  were  to  run  was  for  life,  but  simply  a  three- 
mile  heat. 

NATURE'S   PATH. 

ON  every  subject  of  morals,  intellect,  health,  we 
have  a  true  path  marked  out  for  us,  on  which 
not  only  safety,  but  enjoyment,  awaits  us  ;  but  on 
each  side  of  this  path  fly  the  arrows  of  the  Lord  in 


THOUGHTS.  223 

continual  volley.  Those  arrows  are  shot,  not  at  A, 
B,  or  C,  but  at^homsoever  is  found  diverging  from 
the  strait  way  which  omnipotent  wisdom  has  laid 
open. 

REASON  IN   TEACHING. 

IT  was  the  sin  of  Pharaoh  to  make  the  children 
of    Israel  write   composition   without   ideas  — 
that  is,  to  make  bricks  without  straw. 


M 


THE    CHILI)  A   SMALL   MAN. 

OST,  if  not  all,  our  principles  of  action  are 


it  has  been  very  pertinently  asked,  What  is  a  child 
but  a  little  man?  and  it  might  have  been  further 
asked.  What  is  a  man  but  a  great  child?  —  and  not 
always  so  very  great,  either. 

MENTAL    EXERCISE   STRENGTHENS  AS    WELL  AS 
PHYSICAL. 

THE  moral  powers  are  strengthened  by  exer- 
cise, until,  as  temptation  increases,  they  grow 
stronger  and  stronger,  like  that  cebbrated  bridge 
which  was  so  constructed  that  it  became  stronger 
and  firmer  the  heavier  the  pressure  of  the  water 
upon  it. 


224  THOUGHTS. 

GIBBON  AXD    SHAKSPEARE. 

THE  difference  between  Gibbon  and  Sbak- 
speare:  one  was  always  struggling  for  some 
tbougbt  greater  tban  bis  expression,  tbe  otber  for 
some  expression  greater  tban  bis  tbougbt. 

MAHOMET. 

MAHOMET  said,   tbe  learned  man's  ink   and 
tbe  martyr's  blood  are  equally  valuable  in  tbe 
sigbt  of  God. 

CANT. 

THERE  is  a  great  deal  of  cant  on  tbe  subject  of 
education,"  said  Mr. .     "  Yes,  tbere  may 

be    a   good   deal  of  can't,"  was   tbe   reply,   "  but 
tbere  is  mucb  more  won't." 

BENEVOLENCE. 

THERE  are  some  men  and  women  wbose  sym- 
patbies  for  otbers'  pains  are  as  quick  as  tbe  con- 
sciousness of  tbeir  own  ;  wbo  feel  a  personal  relief 
from  suffering  wben  otbers  are  relieved ;  and  to 
wbose  ear  tbe  song  of  tbe  captive  ransomed  from 
guilt  is  sweeter  tban  a  tbousand-voiced  cborus,  peal- 
ing tbeir  own  praises.     Tbese  are  tbe  god-like. 


THOUGHTS.  225 

GROWTH. 

AT  first  the  mind  cannot  project  itself  outwards, 
if  we  may  so  speak,  even  so  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach.  A  child  may  see  with  the  eye  the  outline  of 
a  distant  mountain  long  before  his  mind  can,  as  it 
were,  leap  over  the  intervening  space.  But  soon 
the  mind  attains  a  power  of  flight  compared  with 
which  the  space  travelled  by  the  keenest  eye,  aided 
by  the  best  telescope,  is  nothing.  The  eye,  indeed, 
can  see  the  remote  star,  whose  light,  travelling  since 
its  creation  at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  thousand 
miles  in  a  second,  has  but  just  reached  the  earth ; 
but  all  this  is  only  a  hand-breadth  compared  with 
the  depths  in  the  abysses  of  space  into  which  the 
adventurous  mind  plunges  itself. 

RICH  AND   POOR. 

THE  rich  and  poor  are  but  different  ventricles  of 
the  same  heart  of  humanity. 

INEFFECTIVE    TEACHING. 

A  TEACHER  w^ho  is  attempting  to  teach  with- 
out inspiring  the  pupil  with  a  desire  to  learn, 
is  hammering  on  cold  iron. 
15 


226  THOUGHTS. 

WRITING   OF   COMPOSITION. 

CHILDREN  should  collect  facts  for  composi- 
tion in  the  same  way  that  learned  men  collect 
facts  for  a  science.  The  first  step  in  composition 
should  aim  at  no  more  than  to  enable  children  to 
see  their  own  talk. 

"  TEACH   OUT    OF  A    MINE." 

THE  idea  is  to  be  exploded  that  the  less  skilful 
workmen  are  competent  and  adequate  to  carry- 
on  the  early  stages  of  education,  and  that  the  more 
accomplished  ones  are  to  be  saved  for  the  finishing 
process. 

GROWTH   OF   THE  MIND. 

rr^HERE  is  always  some  central  idea  in  contem- 
_L  plating  any  subject  which  should  constantly  be 
kept  in  view.  In  education  this  central  object  is 
the  growth  of  the  mind.  Some  people  seem  to  think 
they  can  do  what  the  Deity  does  not  do  —  make  a 
character  perfect  all  at  once  by  a  single  word. 

GOOD    TEACHING. 

GREAT  knowledge  is  requisite  to  instruct  those 
who  have  been  well  instructed,  but  still  greater 
knowledge  is  requisite  to  instruct  those  who  have 
been  neglected. 


THOUGHTS.  227 

''BONESTT  IS  THE  BEST  POLICY." 

HOW  infinitely  woful  when  such  a  state  of  de- 
generacy prevails  that  it  comes  to  be  instinc- 
tively felt  that  a  lower  amount  of  honesty  will 
secure  an  earlier  and  larger  fortune  than  a  higher 
amount  of  it  can  do  ! 

DIFFICULTIES  OF  AN  EDUCATOR. 

SOMETIMES  I  cannot  repress  laughter  at  the 
ridiculousness  of  my  own  position.  When  I 
devote  not  a  little  time  to  preparation,  and  then  visit 
a  place  and  strive  to  expound  the  great  subject  of 
education,  and  lal^r,  and  preach,  and  exhort,  and 
implore,  I  seem  to  myself  as  if  I  were  standing, 
on  some  wintry  day,  with  the  storm  beating  upon 
me,  ringing  the  door  bell  of  a  house  that  no  one 
lives  in,  or  perhaps  where  the  dwellers  are  all  sound 
asleep,  or  too  much  absorbed  in  their  own  minds  to 
hear  the  summons  of  one  who  comes  to  tell  them 
that  a  torrent  from  the  mountains  is  rushing  down 
upon  them. 

PSYCHOLOGY  is  now  coming  into  use  to  sig- 
nify Mental  Philosophy.     It  teaches   how  to 
command  the  faculties,  as  a  general  his  army. 


228  THOUGHTS. 

CONCENTRATION  OF  THOUGHT. 

INTENSITY  and  concentration  of  thought  often 
eiFect  what  neither  genius  nor  intuition  can  do, 
as  the  strokes  of  the  feeble  but  long-repeating  mat- 
tock dig  deeper  than  the  thunderbolt.  Give  us 
time,  say  the  water-drops,  and  we  will  bore  a  hole 
through  your  thickest  stratum  of  granite.  Give  us 
time,  say  the  coral  insects,  and  we  will  build  up 
another  Australasia. 

IDEALITY  A  PROPHECY. 

HOW  strong  that  desire  of  improvement  in  the 
human  mind,  which  is  the  companion,  if  it  be 
not  the  condition,  of  genius  !  — that  Ideality,  I  mean, 
that  always  runs  ahead  of  Actuality.  Achievement 
is  only  the  eminence  whence  we  survey  something 
better  to  be  achieved.  Ideality  is  only  the  avant- 
courier  of  the  mind,  and  where  that,  in  a  healthy 
and  normal  state,  goes,  I  hold  it  to  be  a  prophecy 
that  Kealization  will  follow. 

IS  MATTER  INERT 7 

THE  substances  of  the  earth  are  compacted  of 
redundant  and  forth-springing  life.  They  are 
full  of  velocities,  compared  with  which  the  swiftest 
animal  speed  is  snail-like.     They  are  full  of  ener- 


THOUGHTS.  229 

gies,  which  sweep  all  human  power  before  them,  as 
a  hurricane  sweeps  a  leaf. 

Elder  philosophy,  indeed,  ascribed  to  all  matter 
the  quality  of  inertness.  The  phrase  "  inert  mat- 
ter ^^  w^as  adopted  into  the  language  of  science,  and 
from  the  belief  of  the  philosopher  it  became  the 
belief  of  the  multitude.  But  where  sleeps  one 
particle  of  inert  matter  ?  Without  referring  to  the 
now  well-established  motions  of  what  have  hereto- 
fore been  called  the  Fixed  Stars,  I  might  appeal  to 
the  diurnal  rotation  of  the  earth  upon  its  axis,  or  to 
its  more  stupendous  movement  as  it  performs  its 
annual  revolution  around  the  sun,  "  wheeling  un- 
shaken through  the  void  immense,"  to  show  that, 
in  its  aggregate  mass  and  bulk,  it  is  not  inert.  But 
this  is  not  all.  By  the  ever  active  power  of  gravi- 
tation, each  particle  of  matter  acts  upon  every 
other  particle,  how^ever  wide  asunder  they  may  be. 
This  power  presses  the  upper  upon  the  nether  mill- 
stone, brings  down  alike  the  rain  from  the  cloud, 
the  cherry  from  the  tree,  the  avalanche  from  the 
mountain,  and  draws  the  comet  back  to  the  sun 
from  the  abysses  of  space.  This  power  knows  no 
vicissitudes  of  sleeping  or  waking.  It  asks  no 
remission  from  labor.  Always  it  grasps  and  con- 
strains all  things. 


230  THOUGHTS. 

ACTI  riTIES  OF  MA TTER  ^  POL  TTHEISM. 

IT  was  the  inherent,  indwelling  activities  in 
matter  that  gave  birth  to  Polytheism.  God 
was  everywhere  so  present,  that  each  separate  man^ 
ifestation  of  his  power  was  believed  to  be  a  god. 
Pagans  could  only  explain  the  saliency  and  vitality 
of  all  created  things,  by  attributing  them  to  the 
volitions  of  a  deity  within.  They  could  conceive 
no  other  cause  for  the  ever-renewing  life  which 
they  saw  going  on  all  around  them,  or  for  the 
succession  of  forms  everywhere  bursting  into  life. 
The  up  welling  of  fountains  against  their  own  grav- 
ity, the  creations  of  spring,  the  ripening  of  har- 
vests,—  these,  and  countless  kindred  phenomena, 
were  inexplicable  to  them,  except  upon  the  faith  of 
an  indwelling  god. 

WHOEVER  does  not  look  beyond  the  pon- 
derous bulk  of  the  globe,  and  its  seeming 
irregular  and  mutinous  activities,  sees  nothing  but 
what  is  equally  visible  to  the  eye  of  the  brutes ; 
but  whoso  looks  beyond  or  beneath  this  bulk,  and 
these  seemingly  insurrectionary  forces,  into  the 
laws  which  curb  or  compel  them,  which  bind  or  set 
them  free,  has  lifted  the  veil,  and  beholds  the  inte- 


THOUGHTS.  231 

rior  meclianisni  of  things,  and  knows  the  secret 
springs  by  which  the  mysterious  energies  of  nature 
leap  into  activity  or  subside  into  rest. 

PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE. 

IT  is  supposed  that  the  ancients  were  ignorant 
of  the  law  in  hydraulics,  by  which  water,  in  a 
tube,  will  rise  as  high  as  the  fountain-head  ;  and 
hence  they  carried  their  stupendous  aqueducts  hori- 
zontally, from  hill-top  to  hill-top,  upon  lofty  arches, 
with  an  incredible  expenditure  of  labor  and  money. 
The  knowledge  of  a  single  law,  now  familiar  to 
every  well-instructed  school-boy,  —  namely,  that 
water  seeks  a  level,  and,  if  not  obstructed,  will 
find  it,  —  enables  the  poorest  man  of  the  present 
day  to  do  what  once  demanded  the  wealth  of  an 
empire.  The  beautiful  fragments  of  the  ancient 
Koman  aqueducts,  w^hich  have  survived  the  rav- 
age of  centuries,  are  often  cited  to  attest  the  gran- 
deur and  power  of  their  builders.  To  me,  they 
are  monuments,  not  of  their  power,  but  of  their 
weakness. 


w 


HEN   the   ancients   wished   to    tell   what   a 
powerful  and  labor-performing   giant  Bria- 


232  THOUGHTS. 

reus  was,  they  described  him  as  one  having  a  hun- 
dred arms.  The  Briareus  of  philosophy  is  a  man 
having  a  hundred  ideas. 

GOD  mocked  at  the  learning  of  Job  and  of  his 
contemporaries  by  asking,  "  Canst  thou  send 
lightnings,  that  they  may  go,  and  say  unto  thee, 
Here  we  are?"  "Were  the  same  question  put  to 
modern  science,  it  would  be  devoutly  and  grate- 
fully answered  in  the  affirmative. 

ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT  could  kill  men, 
—  the  easiest  of  all  things,  —  but  on  the  day 
when  he  wept  for  other  worlds  to  conquer,  he  could 
not,  with  all  the  power  of  his  subject  nations,  do  so 
much  for  the  comfort  and  the  sustenance  of  man- 
kind as  is  done  every  year  at  the  flour-mills  of 
Rochester,  or  the  cotton-mills  of  Lowell. 

*'  KNOWLEDGE  IS  POWEE." 

WHEN  Lord  Bacon  uttered  that  often  quoted 
and  often  misunderstood  axiom,  "Knowl- 
edge is  power,"  he  meant  a  knowledge  of  those 
laws  of  Nature,  and  of  the  conditions  on  which 
they  may  be  summoned  to  action,  or  laid  to  rest. 


THOUGHTS.  233 

He  did  not  mean  a  knowledge  that  in  the  Greek 
language  the  earth  is  called  yr/ ;  in  the  Latin, 
terra;  in  the  German,  erde;  in  the  French,  la 
terre  :  in  the  Italian,  terra,  —  &c.  ;  but  he  meant 
a  knowledge  of  the  powers  and  laws,  the  vitality 
and  skill,  which  its  Author  incorporated  in  the 
earth  when  He  made  it,  and  which  only  await 
our  progress  in  knowledge  to  be  transmuted  into 
human  power  and  blessedness. 

NATURE   WOULD    WORK  FOR  MAX. 

I  BELIEVE  it  to  have  been  a  part  of  the  Crea- 
tor's vast  plan  of  beneficence  to  endue  the 
earth  with  powers  so  mighty,  so  subtle,  so  swift,  so 
various,  so  exhaustless,  so  obedient  to  law,  as  to 
supersede  all  human  labor,  excepting  only  so  much 
as  it  is  best  for  his  own  health  that  man  should 
perform  for  himself.  As  this  benevolent  design  of 
the  Creator  is  more  and  more  fulfilled,  less  and  less 
shall  the  souls  of  men  famish,  in  order  that  the 
wants  of  their  bodies  may  be  supplied.  The  mind 
shall  no  longer  be  a  beggar  asking  alms  of  the 
body,  in  vain,  because  that  also  is  a  beggar.  Hun- 
ger and  toil  shall  cease  to  treat  knov*'ledge  as  a 
robber,  coming  to  snatch  away  its  bread.  Cold 
shall  not  burn  down  the  halls  of  refinement,  the 


234  THOUGHTS. 

repositories  of  learning,  the  galleries  of  art,  the 
temple  of  religion,  that  it  may  sit  down  in  their 
ashes  to  warm  its  shivering  limbs. 

CURE  OF  supehstitiox. 

THE  knowledge  of  Nature  not  only  adds  a  myr- 
iad fold  to  human  power,  but  it  preserves  its 
possessor  from  myriads  of  dangers.  Read  such 
works  as  Brewster's  "  Natural  Magic,"  or  "  Dick 
on  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge,"  and  see 
from  what  terrors  and  alarms  the  human  mind  has 
been  freed  by  the  progress  of  science.  As  wild 
beasts  flee  from  a  wilderness  as  civilization  enters 
it,  so  the  most  loathsome  and  debasing  supersti- 
tions,—  a  multitude  that  no  man  can  number, — 
which  once  held  possession  of  the  human  mind, 
have  fled  before  the  advance  of  knowledge. 

IS  PROVIDENCE  INSCRUTABLE! 

WHEN  the  youthful,  the  lovely,  and  the  excel- 
lent are  brought  to  an  untimely  grave  ;  when 
the  great  benefactors  of  their  race  are  cut  down  in 
the  midst  of  their  usefulness,  an  ignorant  piety 
refers  the  calamity  to  the  dispensations  of  an  in- 
scrutable Providence.  It  sees  not  that  some  law 
was  violated,  in  punishment  for  which  they  perished. 


THOUGHTS.  235 

It  understands  not  that  Nature  never  accepts  the  plea 
of  a  general  obedience  as  an  excuse  for  a  particular 
transgression,  nor  withholds  her  penalties  for  the 
breach  of  one  physical  law,  on  the  ground  of  a  life 
of  piety.  As  it  regards  the  outward  and  material 
world,  is  not  a  knowledge  of  its  various  substances, 
of  their  properties  and  interior  laws  ;  by  which  we 
can  make  a  portion  of  Omnipotence  the  ally  of  our 
weakness,  and  by  which  our  feeble  wisdom  and  skill 
can  contract  a  partnership  with  a  portion  of  the 
divine  wisdom  and  skill ;  by  which  the  race  can  be 
saved  from  indescribable  degradation  and  suffering, 
and  the  materials  of  superstition  be  converted  into 
kindling  excitements  for  adoration  and"  gratitude  to 
God,  —  are  not  these  the  parts  of  knowledge  most 
worthy  to  be  known  ? 

EDUCATION  AN  ORGANIC  NECESSITY  OF  MAN. 

EDUCATION  is  an  organic  necessity  of  a  human 
being.  It  is  so  in  a  three-fold  sense.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  save  him  from  mistake,  which  is  intellectual 
error  ;  from  sin,  which  is  moral  error  ;  and  from  suf- 
fering, which  is  the  inevitable  consequence  of  both. 
Instinct,  without  training  or  acquired  knowledge, 
may  prompt  man  to  a  few  automatic  movements  of 
the  muscles,  or  to  a  few  spontaneous  intuitions  of 


236  THOUGHTS. 

the  miud.  But  its  directive  forces  have  no  ampli- 
tude of  scope,  no  variety  of  application.  Instinct 
can  effect  no  combination  of  multitudes  or  opposites 
into  harmonizing  systems.  At  most,  instinct  can 
only  move  outward  from  its  central  point  in  radii 
or  a  single  diameter  ;  but  reason  and  conscientious- 
ness, enlightened  by  education,  survey  the  whole 
area  of  circles,  and  not  of  circles  only,  but  the 
whole  solidity  of  globes.  In  its  acuteness  and  in 
its  certainty,  instinct  has  an  advantage  over  reason, 
as  far  as  it  goes  ;  as  a  bee,  without  tools,  will  build 
as  geometric  a  cell  as  a  skilled  mathematician  with 
them ;  but  reason  has  an  immense  advantage  over 
instinct  in  the  magnitude  and  boundless  variety  of 
its  field  of  operations.  A  bee  with  its  instinct  can 
build  a  perfect  home  for  bees ;  a  man  with  his 
reason  can  build  a  home  for  all  zoology.  Without 
his  reason,  man  would  have  been  iuferior  to  most 
of  the  brute  creation ;  with  reason,  he  is  the  lord 
of  earthly  powers ;  with  conscience,  he  is  God's 
vicegerent  upon  earth. 


THE   UmVERSE  IS  FULL   OF  THE  OBJECTS  OF 
KNOWLEDGE. 


K 


NOWLEDGE  is  a  mimic  creation.     God  has 

not  merely  stored,  but  stowed,  the  earth  with 

•     it 


THOUGHTS.  237 

His  divine  knowledge,  that  is,  with  things  to  be 
known.  In  its  solid  rocks  and  in  its  pulverized 
soils ;  in  its  waters,  its  air,  and  its  gases  ;  in  its 
light,  heat,  and  electricity  ;  in  the  dynamical  and  in 
the  chemical  properties  of  matter ;  in  the  laws  of 
motion,  vegetation,  and  reproduction,  .  .  .  where 
is  there  any  thing  among  all  things,  or  any  place 
among  all  places,  not  compacted  with  the  objects  of 
knowledge,  wonderful  knowledge,  sound  knoAvledge, 
knowledge  emanating  from  the  Divine  Mind,  knowl- 
edge in  its  very  nature  adapted  to  bear  all  minds 
that  shall  receive  it  back  to  the  Divine  Mind  for 
adoration  and  thanksgiving  ? 

THE  ''COAL-BAGS''   OF  THE  ASTRONOMEBS. 

FAR  off  in  the  southern  heavens,  in  that  distant 
realm  where  the  Southern  Cross  blazes  and  the 
Magellan  Clouds  diffuse  their  soft  radiance,  astrono- 
mers tell  us  there  are  certain  spots  intensely  black, 
—  not  indeed  adequately  described  by  the  adjective 
hlach,  but  demanding  the  solid  noun  substantive 
blackness ;  —  where,  as  they  surmise,  there  are  wide 
realms  of  space  in  which  there  is  no  constellation, 
no  sun,  even,  to  soften  the  unmitigated  inkiness, — 
so  void,  so  deep,  that  no  ray  of  galaxy  or  zodiac  is 
reflected  from  it  to  our  eyes.     These  regions  are 


238  THOUGHTS. 

known  to  astronomers  by  the  somewhat  descriptive 
but  inelegant  name  of  "  coal-bags  "  —  the  appellation 
being  intended  to  stimulate  our  imaginations  to  con- 
ceive of  their  solidified  blackness  of  darkness. 

Now,  the  brain  of  an  infant,  Avhen  first  born,  is  as 
empty  of  knowledge  as  one  of  these  astronomical 
coal-bags  is  of  light.  This  brain  has  immense  capa- 
city for  knowledge,  —  as  much  room  for  it  as  one  of 
those  coal-bags  has  for  light :  doubtless  it  has  even 
an  appetency  for  knowledge  ;  but  as  yet,  so  far  as 
acquired  knowledge  is  concerned,  it  is  a  void,  a 
pure  nonentity,  an  exhausted  receiver.  All  infan- 
tile brains  are  in  this  condition  of  darkness  and 
vacuity,  waiting  to  be  illumined  by  the  stars  of 
thought !  Alas,  that  they  should  so  often  be 
lighted  by  the  ignis  fatuus  of  mystic  speculation, 
by  the  cometary  light  of  wayward  thoughts,  or  by 
the  lurid  fires  of  sin  ! 

One  of  the  grand  functions  of  education  is  to  fill 
these  void  spaces  of  the  soul  with  ideas,  thoughts, 
transcripts  of  the  Divine  Mind,  as  that  mind  is 
reflected  in  Nature  and  in  Providence,  and  with 
high  resolve  and  aspiration  also,  noble  and  enno- 
bling. Where  are  these  ideas,  thoughts,  transcripts, 
records,  resolves,  aspirations  ?  I  answer,  All  Nature, 
all  the  universe  external  to  our  own  souls,  and  the 
laws  of  our  souls  themselves,  are  full  of  them. 


THOUGHTS.  239 

GEOLOGY. 

IN  one  compartment  of  the  soul's  vacant  temple, 
education  fills  the  void  by  reconstructing  the 
earth  on  known  principles  of  Geology,  so  that  its 
possessor  may  have  an  earth  to  himself,  —  so  that, 
even  if  this  external  globe  were  to  be  destroyed,  he 
could  still  go  on  and  try  Avhatever  experiments  he 
might  please  Avith  his  ideal  globe,  his  private  model 
—  might  toss  it  with  earthquakes,  or  edge  it  with 
mountains,  or  send  up  volcanic  reefs  from  its  inte- 
rior, or  furrow  and  scoop  its  surface  for  the  channels 
of  rivers  or  the  beds  of  seas.  We  might  say  of 
such  an  experimenter  upon  the  earth  which  he  car- 
ries in  his  own  brain,  as  the  prophet  Isaiah  says  of 
the  Almighty,  "  Behold,  he  taketh  up  the  isles  as  a 
very  little  thing." 

WHAT  IS   GOD   TO  MAN1 

GOD  is  more  to  me  than  a  grand  and  solitary 
Being,  though  refulgent  w^ith  infinite  perfec- 
tions. Contemplated  as  enthroned  in  the  midst  of 
His  works.  His  spiritual  ofiTspring  in  all  the  grand 
circuit  of  the  worlds,  He  has  become  a  multiplying 
glass  reflecting  back  the  Original  in  the  profusion 
and  countlessness  of  infinite  numbers.  But  when 
the  wickedness  of  man  cuts  off  entire  generations 


240  THOUGHTS. 

and  whole  races  from  the  capacity  of  reflecting  back 
this  radiant  image  of  the  Creator,  then  all  that  part 
of  the  universe  where  they  dwell  becomes  black 
and  revolting,  and  all  that  portion  of  the  mirror  of 
souls  which  was  designed  to  reproduce  and  rekindle 
the  glories  of  the  Eternal  absorbs  and  quenches  the 
rays  which  it  should  have  caught  and  flamed  with 
anew,  and  multiplied  and  returned. 

PROGRESS. 

LET  us  labor  for  that  larger  and  larger  compre- 
hension of  truth,  that  more  and  more  thorough 
repudiation  of  error,  which  shall  make  the  history 
of  mankind  a  series  of  ascending  developments. 


THE  LOVE    OF  HOME. 


The  following  noble  sentin^nts  were  uttered  by 
Daniel  \^'ebster.  They  are,  indeed,  pearls  of  the  rar- 
est value.  We  place  them  here  in  order  that  mothers 
may  see  them  and  read  them  to  their  children : 

"It  is  only  shallow-minded  pretenders  who  make 
either  distinguished  origin  a  matter  of  personal  merit, 
or  obscure  origin  a  matter  of  personal  reproach.  A 
man  who  is  not  ashamed  of  himself  need  not  be  asham- 
ed of  his  eai-ly  condition.  It  did  happen  to  me  to  be 
born  in  a  log  cabin,  raised  among  the  snow-drifts  of 
New-Hampshire,  at  a  period  so  early  that  wlien  the 
smoke  first  rose  from  its  rude  chimney  and  curled  over 
••"the  frozen  liills,  there  was  no  similar  evidence  of  a 
white  man's  habitation  between  it  and  the  rivers  of 
Canada.  Its  remains  still  exist.  I  make  it  an  annual 
visit.  I  carry  my  children  to  it,  to  teach  them  the 
hardships  endured  by  the  generation  before  me.  I 
love  to  dwell  on  the  tender  recollections,  the  kindred 
ties,  the  early  affections,  and  the  narration  of  incidents 
which  mingle  with  all  I  know  of  this  primitive  family 
abode.  I  weep  to  think  that  none  of  those  who  in- 
habited it  are  now  among  the  living ;  and  if  ever  I 
fail  in  affectionate  veneration  for  him  who  raised  it, 
and  defended  it  against  savage  violence  and  destruc- 
tion, cherished  all  domestic  comforts  beneath  its  roof, 
and  through  the  fire  and  blood  of  seven  years'  revolu- 
tionary war,  shrunk  from  no  toil,  no  sacrifice  to  serve 
liis  country,  and  to  raise  his  children  to  a  condition 
better  than  his  own,  may  my  name  and  the  name  of 
my  posterity  be  blotted  from  the  memory  of  mankind." 


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